


Lost Reflections

by esama



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Bandomeer, Gen, Introspection, Plants, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-04-17
Updated: 2015-04-22
Packaged: 2018-03-23 09:21:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 30,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3762757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/esama/pseuds/esama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Obi-Wan didn't become Qui-Gon Jinn's apprentice, and Ben didn't exile himself to Tatooine.  On Bandomeer the two meet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Proofread by Darlene

1.

It had been a year now. Today was the anniversary of his arrival – if it could even be called that.

Obi-Wan looked over the landscape he'd been working on for most of that time, not entirely sure how he felt about it. The change was obvious, that much was certain. What had been barren, rocky landscape had slowly begun to bloom. Well, not quite bloom – but they'd managed to ease lot of the original plants back into growing. First the grasses and the mosses, then the little shrubs and bushes. Now, here and there, one could even slowly see the beginnings of young trees, cautiously reaching upwards and towards the sun. Slowly, warily, greenery crept along the edges of old mining ravines and up the cliffs created by centuries of ruthless excavation.

Bandomeer would never be the land of gently rolling hills and peaceful fields, maybe. But it would be a land of greenery. Eventually. The plans set by the Jedi AgriCorps were already working and already the Meerians were celebrating the success of the platform fields, created along the old mining routes.

One day the place would be beautiful, Obi-Wan could almost see it. Whether it would ever become the great farming industry it had once been was still left to be seen – there was _so much_ work still left to be done. But once those tracks and cliffs and holes would be filled with greenery, the visual would be stunning. There'd be gardens on top of artificial hills, there'd be farm lands on the old excavation sites – there's be artificial ponds in the equally artificial gorges that now tore the land, and would feed the gardens in the future.

He thought that maybe one day he could take pride in being part of that work.

Right now, though…

It was the anniversary of the day when Qui-Gon Jinn had rejected him one last time at the Governor's house in Bandor. His final chance of becoming a Jedi Knight had died there, and Obi-Wan could still hear the echo of Qui-Gon's footsteps when the Master had walked away from him. All of it rang with cruel finality, as did the words. "Bandomeer will teach you many things – things you need to learn more than you need to become a Jedi Knight."

Whatever that meant.

 

2. 

 

Obi-Wan had learned many things on Bandomeer, though – not all of them nice. He'd learned about greed and destruction and malice. He'd learned the power of corporations and how they could devour entire worlds in their thirst for profit. He'd also learned of disappointment and misery and loneliness – those lessons were ongoing though, and he wasn't sure he'd ever finish learning them.

And he'd learned how to call on the Living Force and how to channel it through himself and through his hands into a feeble little plant and enhance its growth. He was good at it, too – his instructor of the art of _growing things_ had been very proud of him when he'd eased a seed into a seedling and from there into a sapling. He was also good at easing the Living Force into the ground, to soften and gentle it – to _sweeten_ it for plant life. Everything on Bandomeer was so tough now, the ground and soil hardened by centuries of disuse and pollution. Every bit of it had to be eased back to life.

"It will get easier, once we manage to get a good population and variety of plants going," his instructor, SelTa, a Meerian Jedi of the AgriCorps for whom the restoration of Bandomeer was a very personal quest, said. "The Living Force will strengthen here and aid the growth of other things and our task will ease. It will not take long, now. Bandomeer was very strong in the Living Force before."

Before it was torn up and smashed into a hardened ruin. _It will not take long_ was a very relative statement, though. Long in comparison to the year they'd been at the task, or long in comparison to the centuries of mining that preceded their task? Or to the eons and eons before that, when Bandomeer was known as the Garden of the Outer Rim?

Obi-Wan had almost learned better than to ask. Almost.

"Why?" SelTa asked, gently, kindly, cruelly. "Do you have some place to be?"

No. He didn't.

 

3.

 

Obi-Wan had his own house on Bandomeer. It was even a somewhat impressive house – the sort Jedi just didn't have. It was an old mining outpost, long since abandoned when the nearby mines had run dry. A six story building of metal, with no less than fourteen adjacent storage houses big enough to store hundreds and hundreds of tons of ore. It stood near what the Meerians called the Gorge of Nothing – one of the most impressive scars left behind by centuries of mining.

The area had been extremely rich in Azurite, some three hundred years ago. A thick half a kilometre vein had been discovered, and it had been mined in a very traditional way – by boring an enormous, spiral hole into the ground, going down level by level and unearthing the entire vein bit by bit until nothing remained. Now there was an enormous artificial crater there, with a spiralling road leading downwards into its centre, surrounded by mounds of rocks unearthed from it – the Gorge of Nothing. It was almost a kilometre across, in its entirety, and a quarter of a kilometre deep.

Obi-Wan had a prime view of it from the floor he'd picked as his residence in the mining outpost. And from the rest of the windows he saw the rest of the landscape. It was a miserable place. The whole scenery was pockmarked by similar holes as far as the eye could see, though none of them as big as the Gorge. There were mining tunnels that had once been the source of riches and now were nothing but deadly traps, full of local animals that had taken residence in them. There were ravines, like gigantic scars scraped into the surface of Bandomeer, where yet more ore had once been mined. And there was next to no greenery.

Obi-Wan was _stationed_ there. There were only four other Jedi on Bandomeer – SelTa, a Wookiee Embracca, another Human named Eni-on, and a Togruta named Hahsona. Obi-Wan was the youngest but that didn't much matter now – as soon as his training in the skills required in the AgriCorps had been finished, he'd been assigned his task. With so few Jedi around and so much to do, they were scattered around the planet and assigned _sectors_ which they were meant to work on. The Gorge of Nothing and its surrounding lands were Obi-Wan's sector.

It had a certain potential to it. For centuries and centuries the rain water in the area had been filling the maze of mining tunnels below the surface, flooding them one by one. Now it seemed that the tunnels had finally filled up because that year, the rain water had started collecting at the bottom of the Gorge of Nothing. And, with the level of rainwater the area got… it would start filling up with rain water very soon.

And among many other things it was Obi-Wan's task to make sure that the resulting lake would be pure and clean and capable of supplying the area with usable water for the future.

It was a task he knew would take him years to finish.

 

4.

 

Maybe one day he'd learn to enjoy the fruits of his labour. He knew the other AgriCorps members had learned to enjoy it – learned to have pride in their accomplishments. The few times he met with the others – once a month, to report results and exchange news and tips on how to work with this or that sort of problem – he could hear their quiet, uncomplicated contentment. Being able to make things grow where they hadn't for centuries made them glad.

He didn't share in that, though he really wished he did. It would've made the work easier – would've made it feel like it was worth it. So far… it didn't.

The work was hard. Even with modern tools and the Force as his ally, it was hard, backbreaking work. Lots of the plants had to be planted by hand, and the purification of the Gorge of Nothing was a never ending task made infinitely harder by the fact that the poisons of mining had seeped so deep into the rock. The little pond at the heart of the Gorge was a soup of toxins and waste. And the local animals were using it and the other the ponds forming in the bottoms of similar mining craters for drinking – and then they _died_ in those gorges, befouling them further.

And they ate almost all the plants he managed to make take seed in the hard soil.

It was a thankless task.

"You will learn to appreciate it," Hahsona said once, patting his shoulder. "In time you will see the joy in it. Try and meditate on the importance of your task and its effects. Try and feel how it changes the Force around you. You will see the consequence it has."

Obi-Wan thought gloomily of his dreams – of being a Jedi Knight or even a Padawan learner, of travelling the galaxy and solving greater, more important problems. Of learning to fight properly with a lightsaber and of bringing _peace_ to those troubled, warring corners of the galaxy.

He'd gotten a taste of it on Bandomeer upon his arrival, and true enough, it had been a bitter taste, a painful mixture of hope, hopelessness and eventually disappointment. But it had been enough to make him thirsty for more. He still longed for it, for that dream that he now knew would never come to pass and yet… yet he couldn't shake it.

Still a part of him screamed that he was meant for something greater than this.

And yet another part scoffed at that, calling him childish and arrogant and greedy.

"I'll try," he said, and he would too. He would try.

He just didn't think he'd succeed.

 

5.

 

Meditation. It was one of the few things Obi-Wan had learned to appreciate on Bandomeer.

It was an important part of the AgriCorps’ skills – it required near constant meditation and close contact with the Living Force to channel it into plants. The Jedi of the AgriCorps used Force very differently from any other sort of Jedi, Obi-Wan knew – they used it without restraint and without caution. Jedi Knights always had to be aware of their surroundings and often times they had to keep their guard up, keep one eye open looking out for dangers and threats. Not AgriCorps Jedi though.

They could _throw_ themselves into the flow of the Force and let it fly freely through them. It was even required and Obi-Wan was constantly being encouraged to do more, to channel more, to let more of it flow. A truly skilled Jedi Agriculturist could stand in the heart of a recently sown field and make it bear fruit just by channelling the Living Force into it. That was what made the Jedi AgriCorps so sought after and so important – and so successful.

Obi-Wan wasn't there yet, he wasn't anywhere near that point, but he had to admit it was one of the few things about life of a Jedi Agriculturist he did look forward to. It wasn't mastery of a lightsaber, maybe, but it was _something_.

So he meditated. He meditated every morning before he went out to maintain the machinery and to tend to the seeds and saplings. He meditated at the heart of the Gorge of Nothing, trying to aid the constantly running filtration systems with his own use of the Force. He meditated over the saplings as he grew them and as he planted them. And he meditated before going to bed at night, going over all he'd done and all he had yet left to do.

He meditated on the slowly blooming threads of the Living Force, gently flowing from those things he'd managed to get to take seed and grow and live, and he took comfort in it. It was the only comforting thing he had in that desolate place.

He was meditating when he felt the approach of another Jedi – and not one he knew either.

 

6.

 

A man stood at the edge of the Gorge of Nothing, watching the steady bubbling of the filtration systems that tried to purify the infantile pond of its poisons. Obi-Wan watched him warily from the distance, taking in the hooded cloak and the stature and, when a wind tugged at the cloak, the ligthsaber hanging from the side of the man's utility belt. A Jedi Knight at least, if not a Master.

The man's Force presence was strong and steady and almost overwhelmingly powerful. Obi-Wan hadn't felt anything like that since Qui-Gon had walked away from him in Bandor.

Once – a year ago – Obi-Wan could've let himself hope. Maybe the Temple had realised their mistake, maybe another Master had heard about his exile to Bandomeer, maybe they'd… come to get him. A year ago he might've managed to fool himself into thinking that. But a year on Bandomeer had taught him better than to do something as foolish as to hope. Whatever the Knight was here for, it wasn't him.

Except maybe to fetch him from this assignment and to take him to another, more pressing one on some other planet that demanded the touch of a Jedi Agriculturist. Bandomeer was in need of help, yes, but the AgriCorps plans were taking effect – the Meerians and other inhabitants of the planet could've easily worked at them themselves. The Jedi Agriculturists were still needed, but not desperately. The planet could've done without them.

It surprised Obi-Wan how his heart rebelled against the idea of being shifted from this world to another. He had no love for Bandomeer – but he was finally getting used to it, used to the quiet, desolate life he was living on it. To have to start again on another world, one probably even worse off than Bandomeer…?

Squeezing his hands into fists, Obi-Wan stepped forward and towards the hooded figure. The filtration system echoed hollowly in the Gorge and the wind howled between the storage buildings, but it wasn't enough to smother his steps. They alerted the stranger to his presence immediately – even if his own Force Presence hadn't – and the stranger turned.

A man maybe in his thirties, with an auburn beard and handsome face gently lined by lines of stress and laughter. He looked familiar, somehow. And he looked weary.

"There you are," the man said, his voice soothing, his accent pure Coruscanti. Obi-Wan almost physically ached at how familiar it sounded.

"Here I am," Obi-Wan answered warily, feeling somehow out of place. He'd stopped wearing a robe a while ago, and his tunics were dirty and somewhat worn by the harsh work – his trousers were stained and his boots had long since lost their polish. He hadn't cut his hair in months – and hadn't brushed it in days. He felt scruffy and probably looked like it too.

It made no sense to feel out of place – he looked like the work he did, he _belonged_ here with all of his dirt and scruffiness. It was this polished, clean stranger that was out of place. A _Jedi Master_ did not belong on Bandomeer.

"What can I do for you?" Obi-Wan asked, swallowing and holding his chin up, refusing to feel sheepish or embarrassed. He probably had oil and dirt stains somewhere on his face and he had _nothing_ to be ashamed about. He wasn't the intruder here.

The stranger stared at him, the weariness on his face smoothing into surprise and then deepening into something that looked like sympathy. "I had hoped to find you in… different circumstances," the man said and sighed. "Qui-Gon did not accept you as his Padawan, I see."

Somehow, despite all rational reason, that was the last thing Obi-Wan had expected.

 

7.

 

As much as Obi-Wan wanted to get the stranger off what was sort of _his land_ , he didn't say so. Instead he – awkwardly, stiffly, uncomfortably – offered for the stranger to come inside, to have tea with him in his so called house. The stranger acquiesced with a gentle nod and followed him inside, his footsteps near silent while Obi-Wan's sounded loudly, each footstep grinding against the loose rock of the still raw and barren ground.

Swallowing the feelings of awkwardness and inadequacy, Obi-Wan showed the stranger inside and to the fourth floor where he'd made his residence. It was, like everything else about the place, mostly barren. Still, the fourth floor had a kitchen – a cafeteria, actually – so that was where Obi-Wan lived. And that was where, while the stranger sat by the counter which had once fed hundreds of miners, Obi-Wan made them tea.

"An old mining facility?" the stranger asked quietly.

"One of the thousands scattered all across Bandomeer," Obi-Wan agreed, pouring the tea. It wasn't the sort of rich blend you could have on Coruscant, the sort he'd once drunk with Grand Master Yoda when the old Jedi Master had thought giving him advice would be worth his while. This tea was weak and bland and tasted artificial. But it was all Obi-Wan could afford and he served it with a hint of defiance to the Jedi Master who was most likely accustomed to much finer fare.

The stranger eased his hood down now and with something like dismay Obi-Wan watched him handle the cheap cast-plast cup like it was finest hand wrought ceramic. Even the man's manners were polished and beautiful.

"Thank you," the man said, taking a sip – and if he found the tea bad, it didn't show in his face. The man considered him over the cup and Obi-Wan considered him right back.

"You know Qui-Gon Jinn?" Obi-Wan finally asked, unable to help himself.

"I did," the man agreed.

"And you thought…"

"I did," the stranger said again, turning his gaze down to the cup. "I don't know why he didn't."

"He said I was too hateful, that training me would be a waste of time because I'd just end up turning," Obi-Wan said, his voice cutting. The man frowned and Obi-Wan folded his arms, refusing to… what, refusing to feel bad? Qui-Gon hadn't been nice to him so there was no reason for him to be nice about it either. "Said that I'd learn to be a better man by being a farmer."

"Hmm," the stranger said. "He was always so very quick to judge."

Obi-Wan opened his mouth and then closed with a snap when he realised what the man said. "Was?" he said, his voice full of shock. "Is he… was he…?"

"Ah, no," the stranger said and flashed him an awkward smile. "At least I don't think so – no Master Jinn is most likely quite fine. It's… been some time since I last saw him, that is all."

Obi-Wan harrumphed and pulled a chair to sit across from the man, the long service counter between them. He checked the counter casually and with a hint of relief found it to be clean. "So what?" he asked. "He didn't take me as a Padawan and I ended up here. What does that matter to you? Who are you anyway?"

The stranger hesitated, sipping his cheap tea and thinking quietly for a moment before looking up. "It does matter. And my name is Ben," he said and smiled wryly. "Ben Kenobi."

 

8.

 

Obi-Wan remembered some things about his family. Not very much, but he'd been a late arrival to the Temple and so had some recollections. He remembered scattered fleeting things like the fact that he had a younger brother – Owen – and that at some point, he'd ran barefoot over grass. He remembered a father – who had a beard, he remembered the feel of it – and a mother – who used to sing him to sleep.

Ben was old to be his brother and he _couldn't_ be Obi-Wan's father. An uncle maybe? Cousin? Or… well, if his parents had had an older child, one that had also gone to the JediTemple, then he wouldn't be in Obi-Wan's memories, would he? He would've already been a senior Padawan at least by the time Obi-Wan was born.

The Jedi Master watched him calmly, not saying anything and just waiting for Obi-Wan to finish digesting the information.

"I thought Jedi weren't allowed to have… family ties," Obi-Wan finally said.

Ben cracked a smile at that. "That's not quite true, is it?" he said. "There are plenty of Jedi with family ties – some Jedi who even have children, due to the needs of their species. Cereans, for example."

"Children…" Obi-Wan repeated, narrowing his eyes. "You're not my –"

The man chuckled. "No, I'm not your father," he said, and sipped his tea. "It's a close relation though," he added with a smile, looking at the cup in his hand and lowering it. His smile faded a little. "I really thought you'd be a Padawan by now."

"Well, I'm not. Whatever you have, it obviously doesn't run in the family," Obi-Wan grunted, though despite the irritation he couldn't deny the curiosity. It explained the strange familiarly. Maybe they shared facial features. The man had eyes pretty much the same colour as his own. A lighter shade maybe – Ben's eyes were almost blue.

Ben laughed softly at that. "Oh but it does – in this case it very much does," he said and smiled at Obi-Wan. "Everything I am, you have the potential to become," he said, with strange certainty in his voice. "And I don't know how Qui-Gon failed to see it. I really don't."

Obi-Wan squeezed his hands into fists on the counter and took a breath, letting it out slowly. "Well," he said. "Doesn't seem to matter now," he said and practically stamped the beginnings of desperate hope in his chest. He would not hope, he would not, he _would not_. Even if this man was related to him somehow, it didn't mean that Obi-Wan was anything but a farmer now.

Ben watched him, looking at his hands and his posture and then looking down at his cup again. "Well," he said, in echo of Obi-Wan. "I guess it doesn't."

 

9.

 

Relative or not, Obi-Wan had his duties. He talked with Ben as long as his sense of duty allowed him – then he had to get to work. And, of course, Ben followed curiously, watching over him as he tended to the filter system and emptied the caches, when he tended to the seeds and seedlings, checking on the rows of planted saplings and repairing some of the damage done to them during the night by the local wild life.

As Obi-Wan worked, Ben asked a few curious questions about his work, and the man seemed honestly impressed when Obi-Wan showed him how to grow a seed into a plant. It wasn't precisely the same as impressing a Master with his saber skills or his knowledge, but for the first time Obi-Wan almost felt proud of how far he'd come with his abilities in the last year.

"It seems like hard work," Ben commented.

"It is," Obi-Wan agreed. "I haven't been here that long though – we tended to the lands around Bandor first, healing the land there, growing out the fields and gardens. Did you… see it?"

"Yes, I did," Ben said, looking impressed. "I saw the fields, they looked very well."

"I was taught to do this stuff on those fields," Obi-Wan said, proud and sheepish all at once. "I'm not as good as the others yet – they would've already had this place blooming. But… I'm figuring it out."

"Hmm," Ben answered, a strange look about his face. He followed Obi-Wan to the other craters and ravines where Obi-Wan checked the growths he'd planted and rejuvenated them and encouraged their growth. What the Jedi Master thought of his liberal, nearly careless, use of the Force, Obi-Wan didn't know, but he could feel the man _sensing_ it out, his presence in the Force watchful and curious.

"They say I'll be a powerful Agriculturist, in a few years," Obi-Wan said, watching the Jedi Master closely as he did, trying to gauge the man's reaction. "I'm a lot more powerful in the Force than most in the Service Corps."

Mainly because most younglings as strong as him didn't become part of the Service Corps – they became Knights. He didn't say that one aloud, but the implication was there.

Ben nodded thoughtfully and didn't say anything.

 

10.

 

Obi-Wan didn't have another sleeping pallet in the mining outpost – it had been completely barren of anything useful when he'd arrived, and he'd only brought with him as much as he needed. And Ben hadn't brought much with him – he, it seemed, followed the old precepts. The only things he had with him were his clothes, his lightsaber, and enough credits to manage for a little while.

They shared Obi-Wan pallet that night, Obi-Wan a little awkward and uneasy, and Ben perfectly at ease – obviously not troubled by sharing his personal space with another. While Obi-Wan tried to find a comfortable position on the suddenly cramped pallet, Ben was still and calm, and didn't even seen troubled by the elbow Obi-Wan accidentally hit him with.

"Are you…" Obi-Wan started, and shook his head. "You probably have duties," he said. "What are you doing on Bandomeer?"

"I came to find you," Ben answered calmly.

"Well… yeah, but…" but that didn't seem like something the Council would permit. Ben was Jedi through and through, but what he was doing here – that wasn't something Jedi did. It was attachment, plain and simple. Ben couldn't have come just to find him, not just like that. Could he?

But then… Jedi did have attachment. Qui-Gon had had one – with Xanatos, his previous Padawan. And that was why Xanatos had gone bad, hadn't he? Still, it had been sort of allowed when Xanatos had still been a Jedi, been Qui-Gon's student. Obi-Wan hadn't thought about it in a while – had avoided thinking about it. But it came to him now.

He was Ben's relative – a younger relative. There was attachment there. And yet…

"The Council doesn't know you're here, does it?" he asked slowly.

The elder Kenobi chuckled softly at that. "The Council doesn't even know I exist," he said with some amusement.

And Obi-Wan's blood suddenly ran cold.


	2. Chapter 2

11. 

Obi-Wan stared. Ben looked perfectly calm and at ease as he sat there, on the hard tile floor of the once-cafeteria, meditating. He looked peaceful, he _radiated_ peace even, the Force around him flowing in harmony with him. Every so often Obi-Wan could feel the hint of a discharge – a flicker of energy as Ben released his emotions into the Force.

The man didn't _feel_ dark. No matter how Obi-Wan looked at him or tried to sense him, he felt like a Jedi. A Jedi Master, practiced, his presence very established, his mind and soul at peace with the world around him. The last time Obi-Wan had felt a Jedi so very at _harmony_ was during meditation sessions back when he'd been a Crécheling, and Yoda had decided to conduct the session.

"I thought you meant to meditate," Ben said without opening his eyes or even moving his lips much.

"I will," Obi-Wan said, and kept on watching him, observing him, trying to figure him out.

Ben took a breath and released it and then opened his eyes, meeting Obi-Wan's calmly. "What troubles you?" he asked, eyebrow arching ever so slightly. "You didn't sleep much last night – bad dreams?"

Obi-Wan arched an eyebrow right at him. "The council doesn't even know you exist," he quoted suspiciously.

"Ah," the man said, and smiled faintly. "You fear I'm dark."

"Are you?"

Ben let out a small hmph which was more laugh than derision. "Do you think I am?" he asked instead of answering, and leaned back slightly, hands gripping his knees and arms straightening out as he arched his back – there was the slightest pop as his spine stretched. With that done, he relaxed his shoulders and folded his arms, looking at Obi-Wan. "Search your feelings. Am I dark?"

Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes and peered at the man. He opened his senses to the Force – not how the Temple had taught him, but how SelTa had done it. Completely, utterly and without restraint, letting it flow through him freely.

Ben felt like a pillar of Force, of strength and determination, of experience and knowledge. There were hints of things that weren't quite there – regret and misfortune, sadness, bitterness, and yes, darkness too, but none of it was actually present. All of it had been released, over and over again, into the Force. At his core, Ben was compassion and protection and resistance and hope.

Light, through and through.

"No," Obi-Wan said slowly. "You don't feel dark. But I don't really know that much about the Dark Side." Xanatos hadn't quite felt dark either, when he'd met the man.

Though true enough, Obi-Wan hadn't really been _looking_ for the Dark Side in him.

"I don't suppose you do," Ben said, considering him. "And in that you're luckier than you think," he added and then stood up. "I need to perform my exercises now," he said.

"Exercises?" Obi-Wan asked, blinking.

"Saber exercises, among other things," Ben said with a wry look about his face. "Or do you think those maintain themselves without your conscious effort?"

Obi-Wan looked away sharply, wincing a bit.

"Join me," Ben said easily, no rebuke in his voice as he walked away. "Don't let the Temple's valuable teachings go to waste."

 

12.

 

Obi-Wan still had his saber from the Temple. It wasn't one he'd made himself – that was a privilege reserved for Padawan learners. No, his was a Temple issued training saber – meaning it was barely strong enough to cause burns, and never strong enough to actually cut. Why they'd let him keep it, he wasn't sure. The thing was next to useless as a weapon.

Obi-Wan hadn't touched it in months. It's sat in the bottom of his backpack, never quite forgotten. Obi-Wan had been very wilfully ignoring it, though. Part of that was bitterness and part of it was self-defence. The training saber represented all the things he could've been, all the hopes he’d once had – all of the dreams that would never come to be. It hurt somewhere deep just to look at the thing, never mind hold it. It was so close to a lightsaber and yet so very far from it.

"Well I wouldn't call it useless," Ben said when he said as much. He was examining the training saber with a hint of nostalgia on his face, turning it and activating its clear blue blade with a flick. "It might not be able to cut anything, but there is one thing it can do, that all lightsabers can do. It can deflect baster bolts – and that alone makes it powerful."

Obi-Wan started at that. "Wait – it can?!" he asked with surprise. "I thought it was too weak for that."

Ben gave him a look and then looked back at the training saber. "In the end, a lightsaber and a training saber are exactly alike – a training saber simply doesn't get hot enough to cut," he said and smiled slightly. "There was a time when I contemplated exchanging my lightsaber for a training saber," he commented idly as he deactivated the blade and handed the saber back.

"Hmh," Obi-Wan answered, accepting the training saber. "What use is it if you can't cut anything with it?" he asked sullenly.

"A training saber is far more defensive as a tool," Ben answered thoughtfully. "You can't kill anything with it, but you can defend yourself and those around you with it just as well as you can with a lightsaber. There is a very ethical sort of power in that," he mused and then shook his head. "Well then. Shall we start with the First Form?"

They did. It took Obi-Wan a moment to get used to wielding the saber again – he'd really let himself go when he'd put the thing aside. The feel of it in his hand was still familiar, but so much had changed since then. He'd worked different tasks, the farming had trained whole different muscle groups and he felt imbalanced now, with a saber in his hand rather than a shovel. And, he realised with shock, he'd grown – at least an inch or so!

Ben was very patient with him, keeping an eye on him and pausing to let Obi-Wan correct himself whenever he made a mistake. They worked in silence, side by side, going through the same katas and performing the same moves in slightly stuttering synchrony. It was odd and familiar all at once – odd, to be doing this on Bandomeer, with the barren rock under their feet, and yet familiar. If he closed his eyes and followed Ben with Force rather than vision, it was almost as if he was back in the Temple again.

Learning yet another kata under a Master's watchful eye.

Obi-Wan's heart clenched painfully at the thought.

 

13.

 

Ben followed Obi-Wan again once it came time for him to perform his tasks. This time, though, the man didn't merely watch – he moved forward and offered a hand, helping Obi-Wan carry the trays upon trays of seedlings to their appointed locations and helping the boy dig holes to plant them in.

"Your use of the Force is… impressive," the man commented.

"I only have one set of hands," Obi-Wan said with embarrassment, glancing at the other trays – which he was levitating around him. All Jedi Agriculturists did it – it saved time and it didn't hurt to let the seedlings bask in the Force a little while longer. Every bit helped. So far Obi-Wan could only levitate three or four – but he'd seen Embracca walk into a field with twenty to thirty trays and boxes hovering all around her. And Eni-on could actually manipulate tools with her Force usage.

"I didn't realise it was like this, in the AgriCorps," Ben mused, watching how Obi-Wan set the trays gently down. "You're constantly using Force here, aren't you?"

"Every bit helps. The more Force we use, the more the earth here heals," Obi-Wan muttered and then glanced at him. "You don't use it that much, do you?"

Ben frowned. "No," he admitted. "I… only do such things when necessary."

Obi-Wan nodded. It had been so strange to come from the Temple and it's teachings of restraint and caution, to this place. The Temple taught them that the Force wasn't a tool to be used or a toy to be played around with – that it was a valuable ally that should be treated with respect and caution. The AgriCorps taught things similarly, yes, but the spirit of the lesson was very different. The Force was an ally, yes. An ally that should be allowed to help as much as it wanted to.

If the Force answered your call, then it meant to help and it should be allowed to help. So call upon it as much as you could and let it do its thing. That was how Obi-Wan figured the Agriculturists felt.

So he called upon it as he took a seedling from the tray and went to plant it, channelling Force through himself and into the plant. It strengthened and grew in his fingers as he gently drew soil to surround the root bulb – the stem lengthening, the leaves widening and darkening, tickling and pushing through his fingers as they did. Then Obi-Wan rested his both palms on the ground around the stem and let the Force flow down, into it, purifying the soil and encouraging root growth until the seedling was firmly rooted.

Ben crouched beside him, watching him work with open fascination. Then, when Obi-Wan went to get another sapling, he stopped him. "Show me," the man said, taking the sapling himself. "Teach me how you do it."

Obi-Wan stared at him in astonishment and then quickly took the seedling back. "No," he said and when the man frowned at him he amended, "I mean, not with this. You don't start with saplings, you start first with soil and then seeds – and once you know how to channel the Force right, then you move to live plants. Channel the Force wrong and you end up killing them."

"Oh," Ben said and smiled contritely. "Yes, I suppose that makes sense. Well then," he said and motioned around them. "We've no lack of soil. Talk me through it."

 

14.

 

It was somehow very gratifying how hard it was for Ben to figure it out. Of course Obi-Wan knew why it was. He'd been thirteen when he'd learned and at fourteen he was still young enough to easily learn new tricks like this. Ben was much older, much more established in his own ways – it was harder for him to unlearn the restraint than it had been for Obi-Wan.

"You're holding back," Obi-Wan commented when the man tried to channel the Living Force into a vat of soil.

"I know, I know," the man muttered. "Who would've thought this was this hard…"

Obi-Wan smothered the urge to grin at him, and instead concentrated on his own vat. He sunk his fingers deep in it and let the Force flow through him, let it infuse the soil. Then, once it had, he began to guide the Force in its purification, in clearing away the ancient toxins and leaving behind only good, healthy dirt behind. It caused the soil to heat around his fingers, bits of rock and sand in the soil heating so hot that they were almost burning – but he was used to that.

Moments later he pulled his hands away and examined the soil with satisfaction.

Ben looked at him with a faintly depressed look.

"The trick is to let go," Obi-Wan said, pushing the vat away and reaching for another. "That was the hardest thing for me to learn. When you do this, you don't do it as _yourself_. You're just a conduit to the Force. The more you try to control it, the less it flows – so let go."

Ben sighed, shook his head, and made another attempt – with about as much success. His problem wasn't just the restraint he'd exercised for years and years – it was also the mentality of a Jedi Knight. The man kept being alert and watchful – ever so slightly on guard, using the Force to keep an eye on his surroundings. Which for a Jedi Knight was necessary, Obi-Wan mused. They were warriors, after all, and near constantly in danger. They had to keep their guard up.

Obi-Wan considered commenting on it, but decided against it. It wasn't as if Ben didn't know, after all. And it wasn't as if he could really do anything to help. If Ben was going to learn, he would learn. But to learn he might have to sacrifice his Knight training. It was a decision the man had to make for himself.

Obi-Wan sank his hands into the soil of a new vat, took a breath, and let go.

He wasn't bitter about the fact that his decision had been made for him – that he hadn't gotten a choice.

 _Not at all_.

 

15.

 

One thing Ben was good at that was actually helpful around the Gorge was maintenance. The filtration system stuttered with yet another jam and for the first time since getting the thing, Obi-Wan didn't need to call for someone from Bandor to come do maintenance. Instead Ben stripped his tunics off, pushed the sleeves of his under shirt up to his elbows, and simply got to work.

"Mind you I'm more used to doing maintenance on weapons and star fighters," the man commented while Obi-Wan watched on. "But this system isn't so complicated that I can't figure it out. Hand me that sonic drill, will you?"

Within half an hour, Ben had the clog out of the system and the thing began to chug along again, sucking in the filthy water from the bottom of the Gorge and spitting out cleaner water. They watched the bubbling of the little pond for a while before Ben commented. "This thing will never be enough to clean this pond. You need something much stronger."

Obi-Wan sighed. "Funds are limited," he said. "It's meant for cleaning the smaller crater ponds, really, but this one takes priority. The water level rises every time it rains, you know, and if I leave it as it is and then it turns into a lake – which it will…"

"Hmm," the man hummed, considering the problem. "On some worlds they use types of algae to clean away pollution," he said thoughtfully.

"The Meerians only want native species on Bandomeer," Obi-Wan said with a shake of his head. "We can't import things." He looked at the man thoughtfully as Ben considered the pond and the filter system. "This isn't your problem you know. This has nothing to do with you."

"I'm here, aren't I?" the man asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, but for how long?"

 

16.

 

While Ben didn't much improve with his agricultural abilities, Obi-Wan did improve with his saber skills. Ben was an extremely patient teacher and he seemed to have an innate knowledge of just what Obi-Wan needed to do or see to improve. It was easy to learn from the man and, after swallowing down his initial difficulties, Obi-Wan took full advantage of it.

It didn't hurt that he'd learned to meditate on his feet and on the move – incorporating that into katas made them a cinch to memorise.

"What form do you use?" Obi-Wan asked, after Ben had spent their morning session talking him through the basic defences and basic attacks of all seven forms.

"The Third. Soresu," Ben answered, and somehow Obi-Wan had been expecting it. It sort of went along with the rest of Ben's comments – especially the one about training sabers. Soresu was a defensive form, especially good against blasters, and it would've been just as effective with a training saber as it was with a proper lightsaber.

Ben was, Obi-Wan mused, something of a pacifist. Except of course the man had decided to use an actual lightsaber in the end, so… maybe he wasn't. But he certainly wanted to be. That was why he seemed to be so interested in Bandomeer and Obi-Wan's work – it seemed right up the man's alley.

"Maybe we should switch lives," Obi-Wan commented. "You'd enjoy mine more than I do."

"I would," Ben admitted with a sad laugh, looking over the Gorge of Nothing. "Had I known how it would turn out, maybe I would've liked to… well," he shook his head.

"What are you doing here, Ben?" Obi-Wan asked. "Say you're here to find me all you want – that's not all of it, though, is it?"

The man didn't say anything for a moment, running his fingers idly over his auburn beard as he considered the scenery. "I suppose I'm here to find myself, too," he said with some secret amusement and bitterness and glanced at him.

Obi-Wan snorted and whirled his training saber in hand. He was almost used to it again, the weight and feel of it. It still felt odd, wearing on different parts of his hands than the tools he was more used to using these days… but he was getting familiar with it again.

He stopped his whirling, taking the opening stance of Soresu. "Like this?" he asked, the saber held up and level with his outstretched arm.

Ben eyed his form for a moment and smiled faintly. "Yes, that looks perfect," he said.

 

17.

 

Ben had been _living_ with Obi-Wan for about a week when he headed off for the day, to visit Bandor. He invited Obi-Wan to come along, but the boy declined – SelTa was stationed at Bandor, looking after the gardens and fields there, and Obi-Wan would've had to go see her. It wasn't that he didn't like SelTa, it was just… she had the insidious ability to make him very depressed with her misguided attempts of encouraging and comforting him.

He had his monthly report coming in a week or so anyway. He could wait until then and he didn't need anything from Bandor anyway.

Ben was gone almost the entire day, doing who knew what. Obi-Wan hoped he'd at least get another sleeping pallet or a bed roll. Not that sleeping at the man's side wasn't warm – on the colder nights it was actually kind of pleasant. But still, his pallet was only meant for one person and he'd probably given the man permanent bruises with his elbows by now. Plus, there was only one blanket – Ben had already resorted to using his robe for one, because Obi-Wan guiltily kept hogging the only blanket.

It was weird, but apparently… the thing with Ben was becoming something of a permanent arrangement. At least the man didn't _seem_ like he was in a hurry to go anywhere.

Obi-Wan paused in his digging, looking at the row of holes he'd made. He was going to plant some tree saplings there, on the outer rim of the Gorge. If all went well, they'd one day bear fruit – and he rather liked the mental visual of the Gorge of Nothing surrounded by fruit trees. It might be all for nothing – the Gorge of Nothing might poison them. But that was why he was there – to try and fix that.

Obi-Wan eyed the filtration system at the heart of the Gorge for a moment. It was a long way down, but thanks to the pond, it was visible – and of course, thanks to the acoustics of the gorge, it could be heard kilometres away. It had been working perfectly – and as loudly as usual – ever since Ben had fixed it.

Who was the man anyway? He was trained in the Jedi arts, he dressed and behaved like a Jedi – his mentality and ethics were those of a Jedi. And true enough the man hadn't ever claimed _not_ to be one. And yet, apparently, the Council didn't know he existed, so he'd never been part of the Jedi Order?

A Jedi grown, raised, trained and functioning outside the Jedi Order. Was such a thing even possible? And what was the man really doing here? And what had happened to him? Because sometimes Obi-Wan looked at him, and the man looked… broken and lost.

Obi-Wan turned the questions in his head for a moment and then sighed. Shaking his head, he got back to his digging, turning his thoughts to his work instead. Whatever Ben was and whatever he wanted… he'd learn as soon as the man felt like sharing. For now, he had work to do.

 

18.

 

"You sure this will work?" Obi-Wan asked dubiously, eying the… contraption Ben had built. A fairly cheap water pump was hooked into several barrels filled with numerous layers of… stuff. Sand, gravel and charcoal layered on top of each other, with very cheap filters on bottom. Obi-Wan had a suspicion that the filters Ben had used were made for caffa.

"One way to find out," Ben grinned, and turned the pump on. It sucked the dirty pond water and spat it out into the barrels. The water was sucked under the top layer of gravel immediately, and for a while nothing happened – just dirty water filling what little space was left in the barrels.

And then the water began trickling out from the bottom, through the caffa filters – and if Obi-Wan didn't know better, he would've said it was clean. It looked… clear – nothing like the murky, faintly greenish sludge the pump was sucking up anyway.

"It's a common trick used on war torn worlds," Ben said. "Especially besieged ones. Water is essential to the majority of the species in the galaxy, and it's very easy to weaken a population by targeting it's water utilities. So often people have to come up with different ways to get clean drinking water. This is a very crude filtration system – but it is much cheaper than an actual machine."

"Huh," Obi-Wan said, taking out his analyser and catching a bit of the barrel water into it. It wasn't a hundred percent clean of toxins – but it was definitely cleaner than the actual pond water.

"Should speed the process along a bit," Ben said, giving him a quizzical look.

"Yeah, yeah it should," Obi-Wan said, considering the water pump. It looked very cheap. "How much did this cost?" he asked, pointing at the pump.

"Sixty credits or so," Ben shrugged. "And the charcoal cost me about ten credits. The barrels I got for free from a dump, and the sand and gravel I picked up from an old mining site."

"So seventy credits for the whole thing," Obi-Wan said, watching the clean water flow back into the pond. The water filtration system had cost him nearly two thousand – it had taken half a year's budget to get it. True enough, the actual mechanical system cleaned the water much better – it got rid of all toxins and bacteria, only releasing pure water, clean enough to be drunk. The barrel system left some contaminants behind. And yet…

"I need to check my budget," Obi-Wan muttered, his eyes a little wide. "I got a hundred other ponds forming out there – if I can get them cleaned this cheap… I need to tell the others about this too – I bet they've never even heard of a system like this. If this really works, it will change a lot of things around here."

Ben had an unreadable look about his face as he nodded. "Happy to be of help," the man murmured.

 

19.

 

With a chunk of Obi-Wan's budget in his hands, Ben headed back into Bandor, coming back with a new trailer on his land speeder, and a whole lot of materials – and ten cheap water pumps. In the following days, they rigged the crude filter systems up on several other ponds of varying sizes, and while Ben made sure the pumps worked as well as they could, Obi-Wan started writing down the process of the ponds, with every intention of keeping record of the outcome. If the system worked as well as it seemed in the long run as well as the short, then it would make his task so much easier.

"You know any other tricks like this?" the boy asked, as they rigged up another pond, Obi-Wan taking recordings of the toxicity of the pond water and writing it down on his datapad.

"Sadly none that are as world changing," Ben said with a wry smile. "I'll let you know if something comes to mind."

So Ben might not be too good at growing plants, but he was good at other things. He came up with little tricks to keep the wild life from eating the plants Obi-Wan planted, he'd even rigged up a cheap sonic alarm that sent the local animals scurrying off whenever they got close. And when yet another animal wandered into yet another poisoned pond and died there, he suggested setting up a water fountain for the animals.

"A crate or a barrel split along the length, with one of the filter pumps leading in to it," the man mused. "Set up where the animals mostly travel. It might keep them away from the ponds until they're clean."

Before, Obi-Wan wouldn't have been so sure if it was worth the effort – but before he hadn't had ten ponds with purification systems, so he let the man test out his theory. Ben worked at the task with an odd, single-minded contentment – not that unlike the way the AgriCorp members tended to be, whenever they worked at their tasks.

Ben, like them, liked _doing_ things, and though he might not be able to do the same things, he still took joy in the work and in its results. It was obvious the man was used to solving problems, using unconventional methods to do it – and he enjoyed it too. Looking at him made Obi-Wan a little less bitter about his own work and he had to admit… Ben was making things easier for him, with his little tricks and ideas.

It was changing things, Obi-Wan mused. In many ways, Ben was changing things.

 

20.

 

Obi-Wan watched closely as Ben performed a masterful Soresu kata in the courtyard in front of the mining compound. As always, it looked almost impossibly elegant and effortless, as the man moved and flowed from one move to another, every movement well-rehearsed and practiced and downright natural to the man.

Ben still looked very polished and a bit too well put together for Bandomeer – but he had stains on his trousers and scuff marks on his boots and there was dirt under his nails. Obi-Wan thought with some amusement that a few more weeks of this and Ben would look very little like the fine Jedi Master he was. And judging by the looks of it, Ben really might stick around long enough for it to happen.

Ben had gotten himself a sleeping pallet; he'd even gotten some cooking and eating utensils and hygiene products and whatnot. He'd also bought a cheap sonic cleaner for their clothes – Obi-Wan's old one had broken a while ago and he hadn't bothered to get a new one. So whatever the man was doing, he didn't seem to be in a hurry to leave.

Still, his manners would always set him apart. And maybe they'd set Obi-Wan apart too. He'd been losing the manners of Coruscant and the JediTemple in the last year, but now, with Ben here, he'd started regaining them. Little things like how he ate and how he moved, how he talked – how he listened, attentive and polite. Obi-Wan could practically feel Ben's manners infecting him and honestly… he didn't mind.

There'd be worse manners to have than those of Ben Kenobi, who even now, in middle of half meditative trance, was the soul of elegance.

"You could join me," Ben commented, eyes shut and movements not stalling in the slightest.

"I can't do that stuff you're doing," Obi-Wan snorted.

"Not if you keep sitting there doing nothing, you can't," the man said, eyebrows twitching upwards. He smiled, and Obi-Wan noted that some of the early weariness had worn off his face. "No one makes much progress, sitting around doing nothing, I've found."

Under the sun of Bandomeer and with a dirt stain on his beard, Ben looked younger and livelier.

Yeah, Obi-Wan thought as he grabbed his training saber. Maybe he could learn to like Bandomeer after all.

 


	3. Chapter 3

21.

 

Obi-Wan knelt down on the edge of one of the smaller ponds, forming in what had been a very shallow mining crater. There was only a foot or two of water in the pond and previously it had been mostly greenish sludge. Now, though, the water was mostly _brownish_ sludge, thanks to the constant stirring by the water pump, which had turned nearly the whole pond into a mud bath.

"Well, now it's only _slightly_ toxic," he commented, eying his analyser that listed a long list of things that most certainly didn't belong in a pond – but of which there was a lot less than there had been.

"Hm," Ben agreed from where he was poking around the filter barrels. "Once the mud settles it might even be clear."

"Yeah. So I guess the barrel system works, then," Obi-Wan mused and stood up, considering the muddy little pond. It was the smallest of the ponds they'd set up the barrel filter systems on, and so it had "finished" fastest – though, of course, the system wasn't perfect so it wasn't actually finished. But with this much already done and so cheaply, all he needed to do now was to shift the mechanical system here for a day or so, and then the little pond would be completely clean.

At least, it would be until the next rain, after which the pond would grow and probably gain a whole new level of toxicity when water drained from the surrounding areas down into the mining crater. Still…

"I'm calling this a success," Obi-Wan decided, and if he was a bit giddy about it then he was.

Ben smiled, checking the readings on his own analyser which was hooked to a long, thin scanner rod – one which he'd plunged into the barrel. "These are still good," he said, pulling the rod out of the barrel. "Eventually we have to change the materials and clean the barrels, of course, but for now these will still work."

"Hm," Obi-Wan agreed, eying the pond and the barrels. "I don't know what to do with this, though. It's too far from the compound for me to start planting stuff here just yet," he said, looking around. "Well, at least I have some good news to tell the others."

 

22.

 

Though the work around the Gorge of Nothing never ended, and there was always something more that could be done, there was still a limit to how much progress Obi-Wan could do in a day. The most time consuming part of his work was the growing and the planting, and though Obi-Wan's ability to channel the Force was steadily growing every day, there was still only so much he could do before reaching a sort of maximum for the day.

The area was still barren, after all. The Living Force didn't flow as freely around the Gorge as it did around Bandor, where the ground was already green and flowering. With each plant he managed to make take root and live in the wasteland, the Force of the area strengthened, but there was still a long way to go. And one thing he had learned early on to do was to _not_ pull too much.

"That's the thing about using the Living Force especially," he said to Ben. "It comes from living things, and at some point you end up sort of… using up the excess hanging around and start draining it straight from the source. If you try and call it beyond that threshold, you start exhausting the life force of the living things around you. And then they start dying."

"I've never been a skilled in the Living Force, so that's never been an issue for me," Ben mused, looking at him thoughtfully. "I didn't realise that it could work like that."

Obi-Wan hadn't either. Slowly, especially with Ben around, he was starting to figure out that there were things about the Force that the AgriCorps knew far better than the Jedi Knights and Masters of the Temple did. But then again, they would. The AgriCorps were the only Jedi who used Force in such a way, after all – constantly, openly, and without restraint. So they were the only ones who ever got to that point.

Still, ever so often the little Crécheling he'd been rebelled against the idea that the Force – the all-knowing, all powerful, all permeating Force – could have a limit. He'd been taught that the Force was stronger on some planets than it was on others, and that in deep space between planets it was easier to draw on the Unifying Force, rather than the Living Force. Still, the concept of a _limit_ seemed somehow absurd.

And yet there it was, and these days he was very familiar with it.

So there was a limit to how many seedlings he could grow, how much soil he could purify, before he started skirting on the edge of too much. And with Ben there, slowly taking up some of the slack, those seedlings he grew were planted much faster than he had managed to do alone. While Ben wasn't as good in the growing aspect, he'd at least learned to manage to channel Force into the soil, and that sped up the process a lot.

As a result, Obi-Wan had lot more of his days left open afterwards.

 

23.

 

The first time Obi-Wan handled Ben's lightsaber, it felt too big in his hand. It was oddly clunky too – skeletal and weirdly misshapen, with a throttle style activator and the emitter separated from the rest of the lightsaber by a sort of choke point. The handgrip was oddly short – designed, Obi-Wan mused confusedly, for a single handed hold.

"You use Soresu though," he said, turning the lightsaber in his hand. "It requires a lot of two handed holds, doesn't it?"

"It does," Ben agreed. "But the power of Soresu is always on the dominant hand and I've customised a lot of the attack patterns to work better in a single handed hold. While it might not be ideal for some, I find it fits me better this way."

Obi-Wan nodded and activated the lightsaber. The screech as it burned the air in its way was familiar, as was the hum of the blade when he moved it. The smell of ozone was something that his own training saber didn't have, though – nor the heat. There was nothing quite like the heat of an actual, real lightsaber.

Handling it carefully and respectfully, Obi-Wan moved through a couple of Soresu katas, his hands finding comfortable slots on the lightsaber's handle. He thought that with prolonged use, he could probably get used to the feel of it.

Across from him, Ben activated Obi-Wan's training saber with a graceful little flick, and moved into the opening move of Soresu. Obi-Wan mimicked him with a little grin, until they stood as mirror reflections of each other.

"You know, Soresu isn't exactly a good form for duelling," the boy commented. "We're both on the defence."

Ben smiled back. "Then we better find the offence of Soresu, shouldn't we?" he asked.

Obi-Wan had been among the best in his class when it came to lightsaber combat back in the Temple. Qui-Gon had called his style _aggressive_ and had berated him for it, questioning where he'd learned it because the temple only taught it's initiates how to defend and how to reserve stamina at the expense of the opponent's strength. And true enough, the Masters had only taught those sort of strategies in the actual lessons.

Obi-Wan though had spent a lot of time learning on his own, studying holograms and holocrons and often sneaking into the training salles to watch senior Padawans and sometimes even Knights duel. And one thing he'd found was that very few used a single form exclusively. Most incorporated a bit of this and a bit of that into their own personal styles. While there was always a greater preference for one form over the others, no form was truly perfect. Makashi offered no answer to blasters, Soresu was without offence, Ataru was without defence… and so on and so on. Though the later forms were more rounded, they too had their weaknesses – which could be covered with the use of moves from other forms.

Ben though was single-mindedly dedicated to the defensive form of Soresu. He was, Obi-Wan had very quickly realised, perhaps the only Jedi currently alive who had truly mastered Soresu – completely and exclusively. And in so doing, he had managed to surpass the limitations of Soresu.

Somehow he'd made the form offensive without ever actually varying that far from it.

Obi-Wan had never really had that keen an interest in Soresu, when he'd contemplated on his own future lightsaber skills. While useful it had always seemed very limited to him – to be always on defensive would be to be always backing away, he had felt. But now, with Ben very handily beating him back with the sheer strength of his defence, controlling the duel with ease… he thought differently.

And well. What better lightsaber form for an Agriculturist, than the Resilience Form?

 

24.

 

Sometimes – often even – Ben had nightmares. It took Obi-Wan some time to recognize it for what it was, because the man never made a sound when he slept, staying absolutely silent even when he woke up gasping. But there were signs and as the days passed, Obi-Wan learned to read them.

Ben, in the grasp of a nightmare, locked himself up – body, mind and Force all turning inward and closing up as if fortifying against the outside world. At first it had been unnoticeable, but as the days had gone by and Ben had tried to learn the skills of an Agriculturist, his Force presence had… loosened and reached out more. So when it was suddenly tucked in again, it was more noticeable – until eventually the _lack_ of Ben's steady, pillar like presence in the Force would startle Obi-Wan awake.

It was impossible to say what the man had nightmares about – it never showed on his face, and he never spoke about them. The only reason Obi-Wan even knew that they were nightmares was because sometimes they'd wake Ben too, and the man would have trouble falling back asleep – and instead he'd spend the rest of the night meditating, releasing remorse after remorse into the Force. Sometimes, Obi-Wan could get a glimpse of those released regrets.

Sometimes he glimpsed a handsome young man with dark hair and scar over one eyebrow – and yellow eyes in a face made feverish by the intensity of the hate twisting it.

"Who was he?" Obi-Wan finally asked, one night when the strength of Ben's feelings woke them both up. "The man you have nightmares about?"

Ben looked for a long while as if he wished not to answer – that he wished that Obi-Wan hadn't asked. In the end, though, he did answer. "A friend," he said, his voice quiet and heavy. "A student. A brother. He Fell… and I killed him."

Obi-Wan didn't ask again.

 

25.

 

Sometimes it struck Obi-Wan that Ben had a history he knew very little – close to nothing – about. Sometimes it shined through so bright from Ben's eyes and from his actions that it _startled_ Obi-Wan. There was a well of experience in Ben, barely contained under his calm, elegant surface, of events and memories and losses, friend and loved ones and enemies, that the man never spoke about, but which still existed somewhere, in his past.

Whenever Obi-Wan saw it shining through the man's eyes – the years spend doing _something_ somewhere elsewhere, he wondered. What was Ben doing here, on Bandomeer, of all places?

And then sometimes, he knew precisely why he was there. He might've not seen it in the beginning, he might've not realised – but Ben had been _hurt_ when he'd arrived. He'd been broken. And no matter what Bandomeer seemed like to Obi-Wan, for Ben it was a sanctuary. A place of healing even.

Sometimes he wondered if Obi-Wan and their supposed relation was just a good excuse for Ben.

"It will never cease to amaze me how much better your instincts are than mine ever were," the man commented when he asked him about it, looking at Obi-Wan with that strange, nostalgic look he sometimes got. "The AgriCorps are very good for you and you don't even know it."

"I'd still rather be a Jedi Knight," Obi-Wan muttered. "And don't think you managed to distract me from the actual question."

Ben chuckled at that. "No, I'd never," he said. "I won't deny that being here is easy for me. That I've found… something here, that I think I've been lacking my whole life."

Obi-Wan nodded, looking down and away from Ben. He'd known it. It hurt, a bit, but he'd known it. He only got it confirmed now and nothing else. No need to be surprised.

"The thing is," Ben said, looking at him steadily. "Without you I wouldn't have any reason to be here."

"…Oh?" Obi-Wan asked, a little hesitant.

The man smiled faintly at him and reached out to ruffle his hair. "So strong and so insightful and yet so insecure," he murmured. "Obi-Wan, if I wanted to be a farmer there are thousands of planets where I could – and more successfully than here too. It's only on Bandomeer where I can be with you, though."

 

26.

 

Obi-Wan's monthly meeting with the other Jedi Agriculturists arrived eventually and though he invited Ben to come along, the man declined. "I'm not part of the AgriCorps," the man said. "Besides, I'm sure your fellow Agriculturists are already aware of my presence here and they'll want to interrogate you on it without me present there."

"Interrogate," Obi-Wan asked flatly.

"A strange old man arrives out of nowhere and practically moves in with a handsome young man such as yourself," Ben said, his eyes sparkling a little. "No there's nothing suspicious about that, is there?"

Obi-Wan snorted at that. Ben had been rediscovering a sense of humour somewhere – and it was mostly awful. In this case he was very right, though. The first topic of conversation the five Jedi AgriCorps members absolutely had to talk about… was Obi-Wan's new house mate.

The five members of the Jedi AgriCorps met in the governor's house in Bandor – which was where they always met. Though SelTa was in constant contact with the Governor of Bandomeer, SonTag, the rest of them were required to submit some sort of report of their results and progress in their various sectors as well – SonTag was, after all, the one who assigned them their budgets, being naturally interested in what they managed to accomplish on her planet.

This time that would have to wait until after Obi-Wan was interrogated though, it seemed.

"I've heard about him around Bandor and I have seen him around a few times," SelTa said, watching Obi-Wan keenly. "An auburn haired Human man in his thirties maybe. He claims to be living on the frontier with a Jedi Agriculturist in your sector, Obi-Wan."

"Yes, that's Ben," Obi-Wan agreed uneasily. "He lives with me."

The looks exchanged between the other agriculturists were pointed and meaningful before Eni-on – the oldest of all of them, being in her late fifties – reached out to take Obi-Wan's hand. Her eyes were full of compassion when she told him to, "Tell us about this Ben, Obi-Wan."

Obi-Wan didn't actually have any idea what to say. He couldn't say that Ben was a Jedi because they'd want to verify, and Ben wasn't in the Order's records, having been trained outside it by… whomever. He rather wished now that Ben had coached him in what to tell them – the man probably would've known just the thing to say. But Ben hadn't and only belatedly Obi-Wan realised that it was actually a bit odd. Ben hadn't said anything at all about what Obi-Wan should or should not say about him.

Obi-Wan _could_ now say that Ben was and wasn't a Jedi, let the AgriCorps investigate the man and figure out everything about that strange mysterious past the man had which he was so closed lipped about. A Force Sensitive trained outside the Order was a serious issue, after all. Especially someone as highly trained as Ben.

Obi-Wan had no doubt that Ben could go toe to toe with Masters of Qui-Gon Jinn's level, and defeat them.

And yet.

"His name is Ben Kenobi," Obi-Wan said. "He heard that I wasn't taken as a Padawan, so he came here for me."

"Kenobi?" SelTa asked with surprise. "Oh, he's your _father_! That explains it – he did look familiar. Must be the family resemblance. What is he doing here, though?"

"Well –" Obi-Wan started to say.

"Well the Temple does inform parents – if they're alive and interested to know – about the child's advancement," Hahsona said thoughtfully, looking at Obi-Wan. "It's not unheard of for a parent to come and get their child from the Service Corps."

"Are you thinking of leaving with your father, Obi-Wan?" Eni-on asked gently. "You do know that it's not forbidden for Service Corp members to visit their families on their home planet. You can still keep in contact and do a great service to the Galaxy by staying in the AgriCorps."

"Ah, no, I mean. Ben moved in with _me_ ," Obi-Wan said, a bit confused now. "We're not leaving."

Embracca hummed something to Eni-on who nodded. "Well it's a bit unusual, but…" the old woman considered Obi-Wan. "Do you mind him being here?"

"Ah… no," Obi-Wan said, still trying to catch up. "He's not that bad and he helps me around the compound. Actually he came up with this water filter system that's a lot cheaper than the one I bought a few months back…"

He rather latched onto the topic of the barrel filter system because that at least made some sense. The others listened to his explanation and looked over the records he'd kept with interest, noting the difference the barrel filters had made with quiet excitement. "And your father came up with this?"

"Ben told me about it, yeah. Well, he actually went and got the pumps and barrels and just demonstrated," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head. "He's not my father, though. Relative, sure, but not my father."

"Well, whatever he is," Hahsona said, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "He seems to have some interesting ideas. If he's still around next month, bring him with you. I think I'd like to meet him."

 

27.

 

SelTa didn't just want to meet Ben eventually– she came back with Obi-Wan to meet with the man straight away. Ben was checking up on the water filters of the Gorge of Nothing when they arrived, Obi-Wan and SelTa on their own land speeders, and Obi-Wan was strangely glad that Ben wasn't doing anything with the Force.

And that Ben left his lightsaber inside whenever he did maintenance.

"Mr. Kenobi? I'm SelTa of the Jedi Service Corps, Agricultural Branch," SelTa introduced herself, clasping Ben's oil stained hand in a very Human handshake. Like all Meerians, SelTa was very short – and though Ben wasn't that tall for a human, he towered over her. It might've intimidated some Meerians, but not SelTa. "I was the one to teach Obi-Wan here the ways of the AgriCorps," she said calmly, coolly.

"Judging by what I've seen, you did so very well," Ben said, equally calm – if he was surprised by the sudden meeting, it certainly didn't show. "Of course I don't know that much about the AgriCorps, but Obi-Wan seems to be doing well."

Obi-Wan looked between them nervously, expecting SelTa to notice Ben's strong Force presence any time now. Normally Ben's presence was quiet and unnoticeable unless one went looking for it, though – he didn't broadcast like the Jedi AgriCorp members did thanks to the nature of their Force usage. Like all Knights, Ben was usually fairly guarded.

And if SelTa felt any of it, she didn't show it. "I understand you've moved in with Obi-Wan?" she asked. "And intend to stay?"

"I suppose that's happened, yes," Ben said, smiling a bit sheepishly and scratching at his beard, spreading the oil from his fingers into the auburn hair. "I guess I didn't really ask for permission, did I? When I found Obi-Wan here it didn't really cross my mind to leave him alone again."

"Hmm," SelTa answered, her eyes narrowed slightly. "Do you have any sort of plans for your stay here?" she asked.

"Nothing truly concrete yet. Helping Obi-Wan around the compound, mostly," Ben said, giving her a look. "Or is that not allowed?"

It was like a duel, Obi-Wan decided, as the two of them talked. Question, answer, attack, parry. Ben's calm façade never stirred and SelTa answered with equal calm and for a while Obi-Wan really worried about the outcome of the discussion. Did SelTa feel Ben's Force presence, did she suspect something? And if she did, _what_ did she suspect? The same thing Obi-Wan initially had? Or something else?

"So you do not intend to interfere with Obi-Wan's duties?" SelTa asked suspiciously.

"No, I intend to help him," Ben answered easily. "I can't do much, I don't have Obi-Wan's talents with agriculture, but I'll do what I can."

And with vague disappointment Obi-Wan suddenly realised that, of course, SelTa only cared about the restoration of Bandomeer and had been worried that she might lose one of the precious few Jedi working on it. He smothered the urge to groan and ran a hand over his face. SelTa wasn't a Jedi Knight here to investigate suspicious individual – she was an Agriculturist, worried about the work and the work alone.

She didn't suspect that Ben might be a mysterious Force Sensitive here to corrupt Obi-Wan. She suspected he might be a _hindrance_ to Obi-Wan's task.

"Well," SelTa said, smiling. "I hope you enjoy your stay on Bandomeer, Mr. Kenobi. Perhaps next time we have out monthly meeting, you might join us?"

"I would be happy to," Ben answered with an amiable smile.

Obi-Wan looked after SelTa glumly, when she finally headed off, the roar of her speeder's engines echoing over the wastelands. "And here I was worried she might be concerned about my safety and wellbeing," he said flatly. "How foolish of me."

Ben laughed and threw an arm around his shoulders. "Her concern over the future of her home planet isn't something to be disdained, you know," he said. "And I'm sure if she had sensed something malicious from me, she would've acted."

"Hmph," Obi-Wan muttered and looked at him. "Do _you_ worry over my safety and wellbeing?" he asked with a wry smile.

"I can barely function over it," Ben assured him.

 

28.

 

The first time Obi-Wan called Ben _Master_ , it was an accident. Ben had been teaching the art of battle trance – which wasn't something the man recommended using in actual combat, but which could still have its uses. A near-meditative state where the mind let go and intuition took over - the muscle memory, instinct and Force working in unison without the conscious will getting in the way. It could be a powerful tool in some situations.

"The problem with it is that if you are fighting opponents who know how the battle trance works, it is very easy for them to startle you out of it – and in that moment, you're extremely vulnerable," Ben said. "However in situations where your opponent is one without decision making ability, it can be very useful."

"Like what?" Obi-Wan asked, trying to lull himself into the trance.

"Like say, a situation where multiple projectiles are coming your way. A rock fall, landslide, even avalanches. It is easy for your mind to get overwhelmed in such situations; but if you let go, let yourself mind quiet and the trance take over, then you can take care of what needs to be taken care off – those object that pose a danger to you – without getting overwhelmed by their numbers. It can save your life."

Obi-Wan smiled, his eyes shut – the illusive trance almost within reach now. "Sounds like you've been in several landslides, Master."

Ben didn't answer and Obi-Wan startled back into full consciousness. The man was looking at him thoughtfully, stroking his beard as he did. He didn't say anything though. Embarrassed, Obi-Wan lowered his training saber. "I didn't mean to –"

Ben snorted. "Not landslides. Building collapses, though, I've been in dozens of those," he said. "Now try again… my apprentice."

Obi-Wan grinned suddenly and brilliantly. It wasn't _quite_ Padawan, but…

Apprentice. He liked the sound of it.

 

29.

 

"Why aren't you in the Jedi Order, Ben?" Obi-Wan asked finally, a month or so after the man had suddenly become such an essential part of his life.

The man considered the question and him and then shrugged. "The timing wasn't right, I guess," he said, lifting his shovel up and then plunging it back into the harsh ground, easing loose a wedge of dirt. "I've learned to appreciate the Force and it's usage outside the Order, though. It's not something exclusive to the Jedi."

Obi-Wan watched him over the handle of his own shovel, considering him. Ben still moved and acted and spoke like a Jedi, though… he no longer looked like one. He'd exchanged his battle boots for a more serviceable work pair, he'd exchanged his tunics for simpler, cheaper ones, and something had _eased_ up in him. It was in the way his cheeks had tanned, in the way his hair had grown out, the way he, like Obi-Wan, constantly carried bit of dirt under his finger nails.

Somehow, while grounding himself on the surface of Bandomeer, Ben had lightened. The numerous weights piled on his shoulders were slowly coming off.

Obi-Wan hummed and then continued digging. He knew he'd changed, too. Ben had helped him ease himself finally into acceptance. He still wished for different things, larger, grander things – but… with Ben there, Bandomeer wasn't bad at all. And he couldn't deny that, Jedi Knight or no, he was now learning the skills. Ben was steadily making him into a warrior just as much as he was making Ben into a farmer. It was a very strange and very lopsided exchange but it seemed to be working for them.

"Those grand things you wish for yourself, Obi-Wan," Ben said suddenly. "They're rarely worth the pain."

"They weren't for you?" Obi-Wan asked, frowning. Ben often plucked his thoughts right out of the air, but it had been happening more and more lately.

"Not, not for a single moment were they worth it," Ben said and sighed, leaning onto his shovel for a moment. "In those grand moments where you prove yourself, when you fight and triumph… people die. Things get destroyed. Bonds break," he said and looked at him. "You might be able to handle the pain, but the loss… it stays with you. The triumph doesn't."

Obi-wan looked down at the holes they'd dug. Another row of saplings to be planted – for berry bushes this time. "I don't really have that much to lose, though," Obi-Wan commented.

"No?" Ben said, looking at him. "Imagine every person ever involved with the JediTemple lying on the ground, dead. And then tell me you have nothing to lose."

Obi-Wan frowned at that while Ben shook his head and got back to work. "Besides," the man said. "Those triumphs are only worth it when there is a gain involved. Fighting for the sake of fighting, for the sake of the victory… for the sake of fame?" he snorted. "There's nothing more hollow than that."

Obi-Wan's frown darkened and for a moment he just watched the man work. "What did you do?" he asked.

"I fought in a war," the man said bitterly. "That didn't actually ever exist."

 

30

 

Sometimes Ben told him stories of places he'd been to, societies and civilisations he'd seen. He usually didn't say what he'd been doing in those places and Obi-Wan was figuring out that it was better not to ask, but still. The stories were still fascinating in their own right – and Ben had a way of describing places and cultures that almost made Obi-Wan see them.

"Naboo is one of the most beautiful planets I've ever been to," Ben said thoughtfully. "It's so full of life. The people there let the forests grow mostly wild, let them flourish and over grow, so the valleys are all bursting with trees and bushes, and everything is so green. Most of the population is concentrated along the equator of the planet, in this perpetual state of summer and I don't think it's ever rained when I've visited Naboo…"

Obi-Wan listened, hugging his knees and imagining it – imagining a place where Agriculturists would never be needed because of the people's level of respect for the planet's life knew no bounds. He imagined the buildings, the cities, which were built around the plant life rather than all over it. The people of Naboo, he imagined, were very beautiful and graceful.

"Oh, they are," Ben answered wistfully. "They're very concerned with the aesthetic beauty of things, too. Naboo has the most elaborate styles you'd ever seen. And I think it's illegal for the Royalty of Naboo to wear the same set of clothing twice."

"No," Obi-Wan said, laughing.

"Oh yes. I've never once seen any of them ever use the same outfit again," Ben said thoughtfully. "I'm still not sure if they're sown right onto them or not. They are very elaborate, tailored if nothing else. Perhaps the act of removing such complicated robes and dresses destroys them – and then they have to create a whole new set of clothing for the next day. Which might explain why they're so elaborate in the first place – their creation might very well employ the majority of the people on Naboo."

Whether or not Ben's stories were actually anywhere close to the truth was debateable, but Obi-Wan enjoyed listening to them nonetheless. Even when the man's voice faded out and a dark look took over his usually pleasant, smiling face, they were still good stories.

"I'd like to see it one day. Naboo, I mean," Obi-Wan said.

"Oh you might, one day," Ben mused, a distant look on his face. "It's an important world, Naboo. Very important indeed."


	4. Chapter 4

31. 

It was raining. Obi-Wan peered up at the sky, ignoring the water splattering all over his face as he tried to gauge the clouds. Was it just a random bout or… was the monsoon season starting already?

"I imagine this requires some preparations," Ben commented, he too peering up. Though he had his water proof cloak hood up, his face was already streaked with water, his beard soaked.

"Well," Obi-Wan said, thinking on all the things they'd need to do before the monsoon season started. Though he wasn't quite at the rainforest level of Bandomeer, the Gorge of Nothing and its surrounding areas still got quite a bit of rain when the season really rolled in. When he'd arrived to the Gorge of Nothing, the monsoon season was just passing and even then it had been hard work. Preparing for the coming rainfall…

"We need to move the filters and pumps, first of all," Obi-Wan said, scratching at his chin thoughtfully. "Else we'll be diving for them in a couple of weeks. Then we need to dig some trenches away from the plantations, else we'll have to dive for those too. Then it's mostly just waiting and trying to minimise the damage."

"I imagine there won't be much planting around this time," the man said.

"No, but it'll be ten times as important after," Obi-Wan agreed. He'd be growing seedlings all through the monsoon season and keeping them in storage under UV lamps until the rainfall stopped. Then the planting season would really start – it was just after the monsoon season when the farmers of Bandomeer would plant most of their crops. That was when the ground was softest and most fertile after all – and a lot of Bandomeer's native crops required a lot of water, which the monsoon season supplied plenty.

"Well, I guess we better get to work," Ben said. "I'll get the landspeeder and we can start moving the filters."

 

32.

 

For the next four weeks they worked half indoors and half in constant rain. Bandomeer's monsoon season wasn't as vigorous as it was on some planets – a lot of the time the rain came down in a gentle fine mist, rather than actual droplets so the damage it did wasn't so severe. But when it came down hard, it could last for hours and hours and if they let it, it could very easily kill the plants they'd already planted.

Especially considering the toxicity present in the rainwater. It was one of the many things the centuries of mining on Bandomeer had thrown askew.

When Obi-Wan and Ben weren't out in the rain trying to direct the water into the gorges rather than the plantations, they were indoors, in one of the many storage houses, growing saplings. While it was in no way unusual – it was in the large storage buildings where they usually worked on the soil vats and the seeds – the constant drumming of water droplets against the metal ceiling was new and eerie.

Ben, of course, seemed to enjoy it, stopping every now and then to close his eyes and just listen to it.

"It sounds like automatic blaster cannons," the man murmured. "A whole battery of them in a long line, all of them firing at will."

Obi-Wan started, staring at him. The look on Ben's face was half nostalgia and half pain and with a blink Obi-Wan looked up where support beams crossed over, shading the high ceiling above. A battery of automatic blaster cannons? He had no idea what those sounded like, but the idea that they sounded like rainfall was a bit strange. The rainfall was white noise – blaster cannons probably made a much louder sound.

Ben smiled, eyes still shut. "Imagine yourself standing inside a shield, being battered by blaster fire. It sounds just like this."

"Oh," Obi-Wan said, closing his eyes for a moment. "You know, that's not very soothing."

The man chuckled. "No," he said, his smile fading. "No it isn't."

 

33.

 

For four weeks, they were nearly constantly soaking wet. They'd stopped bothering washing their clothes after a while – they'd only get muddy and dirty the moment they stepped out anyway. The only concern they really had concerning clothes was keeping them at least semi dry and warm. That didn't save both of them from getting terrible colds, though.

"Oh, this is undignified," Ben grumbled, blowing his nose with an annoyed, scrunched up expression. "What I wouldn't give for a proper medbay right now."

"I guess we could go to Bandor and get something," Obi-Wan said, tucking his cloak tighter around himself. At least the heater was still working. "They might not have much but they should have cold medicine at least."

They didn't, though, because that night they both developed fevers and after that neither really felt like heading out. They took a miserable day off, spending it sitting around the heater and watching how the rainwater drained into the Gorge of Nothing. The water in it had already doubled, and it was still being drained in from the surrounding areas.

"They're all going to be twice as toxic once this is over," Obi-Wan muttered, sighing at the thought of having to start the filtration process all over. Not that he hadn't known it would need to be done, but still. Keeping the ponds clean seemed like never ending tasks, and having to always start all over after a monsoon season…

He'd be here once he was older than Ben, still filtering the damn ponds.

The man gave him a look. "You think I'm _old_?" he asked, his voice a little stuffy and mildly amused.

"Positively ancient," Obi-Wan nodded, and started to cough.

 

34.

 

Ben didn't actually look old though. It struck Obi-Wan one early morning just after the monsoon season passed and the sun hit the ground for the first time in weeks. It was caught in the strands of Ben's auburn hair and Obi-Wan suddenly realised that the man looked younger.

"What?" the man asked, wiping a hand over his forehead and leaving a streak of mud behind as Obi-Wan stared at him, trying to figure it out. Ben's hair was a little longer and it curled at his neck, and his beard was a little scruffy, a little too long. It wasn't just that, though. It wasn't even the lack of whatever worries and stresses he'd been under before. It was something much simpler.

It was his skin, around his eyes. Unless Obi-Wan was suddenly developing problems with his sight, he could've sworn Ben had lost some of the lines there. The corners of his eyes still crinkled when he smiled and laughed, but when his face was smooth and calm, the lines smoothed away.

"What?" Ben asked again, half exasperated and half laughing.

"You got mud all over your face," Obi-Wan said, shaking his head. Could someone get younger? How? And how was it happening here? "And you really need to trim your beard; it's all over the place."

Ben scoffed at him, a little affronted, and went back to work, striking the shovel against the muddy ground with extra vigour. That night, though, he spend a little longer than usual in the fresher, and came out with a freshly trimmed beard, some of the weight and thickness of it smoothed down.

It made him look even younger.

 

35.

 

"Have you been using the Force on Ben, Obi-Wan?" Eni-on asked.

It was the monthly meeting and Ben was in attendance, talking with SelTa, Hahsona and Embracca about filters and water redirection and things of that nature. Obi-Wan had been part of the discussion too, until Eni-on had pulled him aside.

"What, no, of course I haven't!" Obi-Wan said, half outraged. "Why would I use the Force on him?"

The old Human woman stroked a hand over her wrinkled lips, considering the scene the others made by the table. Ben was half conducting the meeting now, and though he deferred to SelTa every time she spoke, there was a very noticeable disparity between the two of them. Ben, Obi-Wan was realising, was something of a leader, and taking charge came not only naturally to him, but often times unnoticeably. He was used to being in control and it showed.

"Hmm," Eni-on said and then looked at him. "Is he Force Sensitive, then?"

"Um… well…" Obi-Wan squirmed a bit. He wasn't sure how anyone didn't feel Ben's Force presence – it was so strong and so blatantly obvious now, even when the man was on his guard. Most of the time he was sure everyone else did know and that for some reason they were simply ignoring it for some reason or another. Apparently not.

"You've been teaching him how to use the Living Force, haven't you?" Eni-on prodded further.

"…Yes," Obi-Wan said finally, wincing a bit. Not that there was much left to teach, really – the techniques applied by the AgriCorps weren't exactly complicated. Ben _could_ do most things Obi-Wan could do, now. The only thing holding him back was his habit, long custom of being on his guard and being sparing with his Force use. It was so deeply ingrained in Ben that Obi-Wan doubted the man could ever use Force like a proper Jedi Agriculturist. But he was still using it almost like one.

"Hmm," Eni-on hummed again, looking at Ben and then looking at Obi-Wan. "He must be very strong too. I suppose the Force runs in your family?" she said and without waiting for him to answer, she asked, "How old do you think I am, Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan winced. Even a boy raised in the JediTemple could see what a dangerous question that was, coming from a woman of _any_ age. "Um…"

"Answer honestly now. Trust me – you won't insult me," she said, smiling softly.

"Er. In your… early fifties, maybe?" Obi-Wan said, his shoulders tightening a bit.

She laughed. "I'm ninety-eight, child," Eni-on answered, almost cackling. "And you're very kind indeed."

"Ninety - what?"

"Ninety-eight – no, ninety-nine this year," Eni-on said, looking enormously pleased with herself. "Next year, Force permitting, I will have quite the celebration." She looked at Obi-Wan, taking in his gobsmacked look and grinning, her face lined with happy wrinkles that made her look younger still. "This is the effect of using as much Living Force as we do, Obi-Wan," she said. "We let it into ourselves, we channel it through our bodies – so of course it affects us. You might very well live to be over a hundred yourself, being as strong as you are."

"Uh," Obi-Wan answered, still too stunned to really process that. "And Ben?"

Eni-on turned to consider the man. "It has been some time since I've seen a Force user turn to the Living Force so late," she mused. "We tend to get our new members young and as they learn to use the Living Force, the effect it has on them is very unnoticeable – them being so young when they start, they don't… how should I put this…"

Obi-Wan looked at Ben. "They don't get renewed, like Ben is."

"Yes, I suppose so," Eni-on said, nodding.

"How haven't I heard about this before?" Obi-Wan asked. "In the Temple everyone always made it seem like… like a huge disappointment, to _end up_ in the AgriCorps. Like it was a failure, to age out, to _wash out_ into the AgriCorps. But the longer I'm here and the more I learn… How are the AgriCorps a _consolation_ prize?"

Eni-on laughed at that, patting his shoulder. "Because, child, for a youngling with his eyes set on becoming a Knight… it is," she said. "There is no fame or prestige in the AgriCorps and the boons the Living Force gives us are those of hard labour and dedication. Whatever greatness we gain in the process, be it renewed body or deeper understanding… is quiet and personal and at most only the plants benefit from it."

She chuckled. "Besides – looking from the outside in, how is a long life as a farmer a good thing?" she asked with great amusement. "When you look down on such a lifestyle, then an extended life span will only seem like a prolonged sentence."

Obi-Wan shook his head as he realised that it didn't seem like that to him – not anymore.

 

36.

 

For some reason, the news of the Living Force's effect on him seemed to worry Ben.

"I suppose it makes sense," the man mused, stroking a hand over his face as he examined his reflection in the fresher mirror, tugging slightly at the corner of his eyes and marvelling at the change there. "I… knew a Force user strong in the Living Force once – he aged fairly slowly and looked younger than he actually was, and he didn't use the Living Force nearly as much as I am now. I didn't think it could… reverse aging though."

"I don't think it is – it just enhances cell regeneration, among other things. So your wrinkles are being regenerated right  off of your face," Obi-Wan said, leaning against the doorframe and watching him. "How are your knees, old man?"

Ben cast him a look and then frowned. "Lots of the old aches are gone," he then said, looking surprised. "I didn't even realise, but I didn't ache at all during the rainy season. Usually I do, but my thigh didn't even twinge…"

"Your thigh?"

"Someone stabbed me with a lightsaber once," Ben said with a grimace, rubbing at said thigh. "Even with the best medicine, cauterised flesh is hard to regenerate – it used to twinge something awful whenever it got even a bit cold. It hasn't bothered me for a while, now that I think about it."

Obi-Wan winced a bit, trying to imagine having a lightsaber going through your leg – and then trying very hard to purge the image, and the sensation that came with it, from his head. He shuddered slightly. "My condolences."

Ben smiled faintly and looked at his reflection again. "Well," he murmured, stroking his beard. "I suppose I should be grateful."

Obi-Wan nodded slowly watching him. He folded his arms and titled his head to the side. "So why aren't you?" he asked.

The man cast a troubled look at him, and didn't answer.

 

37.

 

Whatever Ben's hang ups were with the Force making him younger, they didn't thankfully affect the man enough to hinder his work. With the monsoon season over, there was a lot of work to be done. All of the ponds had doubled, in some cases tripled, during the rains, and there was a whole new mix of poisons to be dealt with. Hundreds and hundreds of saplings that they'd been growing during the rains had to be planted. And there were hundreds more that needed to be healed after the rains had battered them.

For several weeks they didn't have much time for saber practice, there was so much work to do. Even during the rains it had been a daily habit to start and end a day with a bit of saber practice, and Obi-Wan felt a little out of balance, not having the time to indulge in it. But the work had to come first.

Ben came with other lessons to impart on him, though. As they worked, more side by side than apart even now and with so much to do, the man started quizzing him with various problems. Some of them were mathematical, some of them philosophical – a lot had to do with ethics and morals. Sometimes he asked about cultures they'd spoken about previously, sometimes he asked about things Obi-Wan had learned in the Temple and how even he knew about those things Obi-Wan wasn't sure. For a man who'd supposedly never been part of the Jedi Order, he seemed to know it inside out.

"Why do you think the Jedi Order prohibits attachments?" Ben asked.

"It's… obvious, isn't it?" Obi-Wan asked back, confused. "Attachments are dangerous. A person attached is a person with a bias, and with a flaw. And should the thing or being they're attached to be lost, they will suffer for it according to the depth and intensity of the attachment. They'll be hurt at least, if not angry. And if the thing was taken from them, they can become impulsive with their anger, seek out vengeance…"

Ben nodded slowly, pushing some soil around a seed bulb and gently channelling Living Force into it. "And why is anger dangerous?"

"Because it can lead to the dark side," Obi-Wan answered, taking a sapling from the tray.

"How?"

"… Because the Dark Side reacts to it?"

"Why?" Ben asked. "Why does the Dark Side react to anger?"

"Because… it's a negative emotion?"

"Why is it negative?"

Obi-Wan paused at that. "Because… it's a violent, volatile emotion, and causes emotional instability," he said slowly. "It's destructive. It destroys a person's mental balance, it makes them act without reason and without proper judgement."

Ben arched his eyebrows. "So a negative emotion is a destructive one?"

"Um. Yes?"

"So why does the Dark Side react to negative emotion especially?"

"Because… it just… does?" Obi-Wan asked, leaning back a little, frowning at him. "How am I supposed to know?"

Ben straightened up a bit and smiled. "You're not," he said, and looked at the row of sapling's they'd planted. "But I want you to think about it a bit. It is said that the Dark Side reacts to negative emotion – to destructive emotion. It is said that fear, anger, suffering and such dark emotions are a path to it. Why? How? Why those specific emotions?"

Obi-Wan sighed. "What does it matter?" he asked. "It's not like either of us will ever do anything with the knowledge."

"Won't we?" Ben asked.

"We're _farmers_ , Ben."

"Force using farmers. Nothing special at all, are we?" the man asked, grinning and then turning serious, looking at him. "Isn't the knowledge alone valuable? If nothing else, the thought process from a question to a solution has a worth of its own, don't you think? Didn't think I had such a small minded apprentice."

Obi-Wan sighed. "Fine, _Master_ ," he said. "I don't know. I don't know the answer and I don't think I will figure it out. Will you please tell me what you think? Why those specific emotions?"

Ben looked at him with amusement. "Good try. I'll ask again tomorrow."

Obi-Wan groaned.

 

38.

 

The grounds around the mining compound was starting to flower.

Obi-Wan walked around the mining facility thoughtfully. For over a year now he'd been planting and growing and now that he stopped to look, he could finally say that it was having an effect. While the fields he was growing didn't have much in the way of aesthetic beauty – he didn't have Eni-on's or Hahsona's eye for such things, nor Embracca's impeccable symmetry, and he didn't even have SelTa's technical prowess when it came to planting things in _order_. But things were starting to flourish – he had actual fields of plants, now, fitted along the old mining roads in squares and rectangles that might not be pretty… but they were green.

And in the corners of the compound itself, things were growing. Things he hadn't planted. Hints of grass and bits of moss grew intermittently in the shadows and light, slowly leaking away from the shade of the buildings.

Somehow, there were reeds growing at the edge of the pond in the heart of the Gorge of Nothing. He had no idea where they'd came from, how they'd gotten there – maybe the rain had washed the seeds there, who knew. But they were there, on their own, slowly taking root.

"Did you hear that?" Ben asked, tilting his head a bit, and Obi-Wan listened.

It was an avian's cry, coming from somewhere nearby. Curious, he followed it in the Force until he found the source. There was a bird, balancing precariously on the branch of one of the steadily growing fruit trees, crying out into the wastelands. It was answered from a distance by another avian, and Obi-Wan reached for it.

There was a nest in one of the fields where they'd recently planted vegetables. Four eggs and a mother bird brooding on them.

Obi-Wan opened his eyes, grinning widely. Ben had his eyes closed still and he was still following the birds, his Force presence flexing out.

"Seems we have some new neighbours," the man commented, smiling.

Obi-Wan's grin widened.

The next day they made a bird feeder, setting it up in the back yard of the mining compound, where it was out in the open and easily accessible. It took some days before the first bird dared to investigate it – a little silver thing with black wing tips and a sort of shivery, bell like cry. It was eventually followed by other birds that slowly, cautiously, began to trickle into the area, called there by the promise of food, shelter and clean water.

It was, Obi-Wan decided, one of the greatest of his accomplishments so far.

 

39.

 

Slowly, their work was having effect. While it was still a lot of work and they were still planting new fiends, trying to clean up the area, trying to purify the ponds, things started growing on their own too. Especially around the compound, where their actions had the greatest effect.

There was _grass_ growing around the bird feeder, and neither Obi-Wan nor Ben had planted it.

"The earth is starting to heal, here," Ben commented.

"Hm," Obi-Wan nodded, his eyes shut and his senses in the ground. The Living Force was flowing in it now, without any need for his guidance. It had finally happened – they finally had enough plant life going on for the Living Force to strengthen. It was moving on its own, now, and it was enhancing the life around it – which in turn was growing and spreading and renewing the land around it.

He could now leave this place, and on its own it would manage. It would grow wild and spread out, bit by bit, from this oasis of life he'd managed to grow with Ben's help. It would take decades, centuries maybe, but it would happen. Now that it had a way, a place to start from, life would manage.

Ben looked at him, surprised. "Leave?" he asked.

"Well not yet," Obi-Wan said. There was still work to be done – things to establish. Maybe actual crop fields to sow and test out – and they were far from finishing with the ponds. The Gorge of Nothing alone would take a long, long while yet, before he'd be done with it. "Not for years, probably. But eventually yes. Once this place is healed, there's no need to stay here, not while there are places on this planet that still need help."

"Ah," Ben said, stroking a hand over his beard. "Somehow I thought… that we'd start growing food here. More than we already are, anyway."

Obi-Wan had too, in the beginning. But that wasn't what the AgriCorps were on Bandomeer for. Though true enough, they could grow food, but they were primarily on Bandomeer to _make_ it things grow, not to grow them specifically. The AgriCorps' task there was to ready Bandomeer for the future farmers. Maybe Obi-Wan would be one of them, once the task was completed. Maybe Ben would be too. But most likely, once the work was done Obi-Wan would be urged onto another planet that was in worse straits.

"Attachment applies on places, too," Obi-Wan commented.

"I guess it does," Ben said, and somehow he sounded disappointed. When Obi-Wan made a questioning sound, the man smiled. "It's nothing. It's just that I've rather enjoyed… having a home," he admitted softly.

Obi-Wan looked at him and then the fields of tentatively growing greenery around them. Home? Really?

Ben really didn't have any other place to be then. And really… neither did Obi-Wan.

 

40.

 

It was oddly amusing for Obi-Wan, but Ben didn't really know how to cook. Sure the man could boil water, but if it was for anything more complicated than tea or possibly some boiled vegetables, the result was usually humorous or possibly tasteless. Not that Obi-Wan was much better, to be honest, but he at least could use spices with an actual effect on the taste.

"I'm more used to ready-made rations," the man admitted sheepishly, sitting back while Obi-Wan tended to the vegetable soup. "You don't need to cook rations."

"So you haven't really cooked anything, ever?"

"I used to," Ben said with a sigh. "It's been some time though and even then it happened rarely. And I can't say I was much good at it even then."

Obi-Wan had learned to cook thanks to the fact that it was just easier to grow and make his own food in the compound than it was to fetch it from Bandor. Even before Ben had arrived, Obi-Wan had had a separate section in one of the storage houses, a sort of personal kitchen garden, which supplied him with most of what he ate. Mostly it was some vegetables, and herbs that could be easily grown under a UV lamp – but throw in some dry grain which he'd learned to buy in large sacks, and it made a decent enough meal.

Boredom had even taught him to play with variance, when it came to the result. There were surprisingly many ways to make a vegetable soup.

"Thank you," Ben said, accepting the bowl as Obi-Wan finished serving the food out. They sat by the counter to eat, and thoughtfully Obi-Wan looked around.

When had their living space been filled out with pots? He wasn't sure, but there were now flower pots almost everywhere – and most of the counter was taken by seedling trays. Ben, he thought, had rigged the growth lamps over them. It was very different from how it had been some months back, when everything had been barren and the only furniture had been his lonely sleeping pallet. Now both he and Ben had their own rooms in the facility. Amusingly enough, Ben was the messier one of the two of them – he'd filled his room with plants too.

Ben really had made the place home.

Obi-Wan wondered at it thoughtfully, as he ate his soup. Once he might've mistaken it for a habit – that Ben, as a non-Jedi, was simply more used to things like that, to having a home filled with personal possessions, and that he'd started collecting plants the same way people collected any other things. That he'd filled their personal space with plants to make it more _homey_ because it was his habit. But he knew better. Ben wasn't any more used to it than he was – even less actually.

For some reason when Obi-Wan thought of what Ben's life might've been like before, he kept thinking of small cramped spaces kept tidy and void of possessions. Cramped crew quarters and cabins in spaceships dead set on their important missions, no personal things allowed. Things like that. Cold, hard, uncomfortable things, lacking warmth and personality.

Obi-Wan turned to Ben, watching as the man reached out for the nearby seedling tray. The man traced a finger along the line of a slightly crooked stem, and it straightened slowly as he fed Living Force into it. Ben smiled a small, delighted smile at it, and Obi-Wan turned his attention to his bowl.

He was smiling too.

 


	5. Chapter 5

41.

Obi-Wan was filling the bird feeder when he noticed it. A flower, growing just a little to the side from the feeder. It was yet another thing he hadn't planted – the birds were bringing in wandering seeds, or maybe the seeds were in the bird feed. Which ever it was, the flower caught his attention because amidst the green grass slowly leaking over the hard packed dirt, it was the only thing that was yellow.

Not that there weren't flowers aplenty around the compound – most of the things they'd planted around there bloomed at some point or another. Even some of the fruit tree saplings had flowers, even though they were far too young to bear fruit. Still, somehow this was different.

It was a small little thing, slightly lopsided, with a couple of the tender yellow pedals a little crushed – maybe he or Ben had accidentally stepped on it, when it had been too young to show past the rest of the grass? It was nothing like the plants and flowers they'd intentionally grown, anyway.

Those radiated the strength of the Living Force. This one didn't. In some ways, this little flower was already wilting.

Obi-Wan first reached out to channel the Force into plant, to heal it and repair it. Then he held back, frowning. It had grown without his aid and to give it help now seemed like… belittling its accomplishments, somehow. And yet the flower was obviously damaged, and doing poorly.

Pulling his hand back, Obi-Wan rested his chin on his hand and just stared at the flower, oddly conflicted.

"What do you have there?" Ben, who'd been carrying some empty seedling trays back to storage, asked, walking closer. Obi-Wan pointed at the flower and the man smiled. "Well. That's a pretty little thing."

"It's hurt," Obi-Wan said. "And I don't know if I should heal it or not. Because it hasn't needed my help so far – it grew on its own. If I did something now it'd feel like meddling."

Ben looked at him and then at the flower. "What is the conflict, Obi-Wan? What makes you indecisive?

Obi-Wan frowned, looking up at him. The man looked back, his face smooth and calm and attentive – his lecture face. His frown deepening, Obi-Wan looked back at the plant. "It's a conflict between my sympathy and pride, Master," he then said, leaning back a little. "I want to heal it because it's hurt but I want to preserve it because it's done so well on its own."

Ben nodded slowly, shifting where he stood and lifting the stacked trays up so that he could balance them on one hand against his shoulder. "And which is more important to the plant?" he asked.

Obi-Wan blinked, glancing at him and then up at Ben. "To the… plant?"

The man arched his eyebrows. "Is it up to the healer to decide the will of the patient?" he asked, and turned to walk away, leaving the decision to Obi-Wan.

Obi-Wan looked after him for a moment and then turned back to the lopsided little flower. After a moment of consideration, he reached out, and healed it.

 

42.

 

Ben had become a sort of unofficial member of the AgriCorps. Obi-Wan still wasn't entirely sure how much the others knew or had figured out about Ben – Eni-on at least knew that Ben was Force Sensitive, but he wasn't sure if she'd told the others, and if the others realised how like a… Jedi Ben was.

For Obi-Wan it was blindingly obvious, but he was slowly realising that there was a very big difference between the perception of someone who spent most of their waking hours with the man, and the perception of a person who saw him only once a month for a few hours. And, he had a suspicion he was trying very hard not to let get into his head.

That perhaps his senses were stronger than those of any other Jedi Agriculturist on Bandomeer.

Still, Ben was part of their little task force now, attending the meetings and reporting alongside Obi-Wan. It was probably the man's obvious joy in the work that helped him ease so smoothly into their very select group – or maybe it was just his relation to Obi-Wan. Whatever it was, he was accepted and even respected, if not quite understood.

Obi-Wan did understand him, though – and the insight that came with living with the man gave him a warning long before Ben actually reacted. It was very slight, the change that went over Ben as the meeting progressed – a minute tension around the man's neck, the slight shift of his footing and the way he lowered his right hand from the table's edge, to hang at his side.

"Has there been any trouble?" Ben asked smoothly, during a break in the usual conversation concerning their work.

"Trouble? Well, nothing unusual," SelTa said. "There's always a few trouble makers and there's still a few mining companies on Bandomeer that remember the way it used to be and would rather return to that time."

"People aren't happy with the new mining regulations?" Ben asked, sounding only curious.

"Oh, of course they aren't," Hahsona laughed. "They can't use slave labour or abuse the land however they wish anymore. It's getting in the way of their profits."

"Hmm," Ben said, looking between them, as he moved his right hand ever so slightly back, so that the sleeve fell over his fingers, hiding them. "Any new… participants to these disputes, lately?"

The hair on the back of Obi-Wan's neck was standing up now.

Ben carried his lightsaber in his sleeve now – a habit Obi-Wan found somewhat absurd. Still, their work was very physical and wearing robes while they worked was only a recipe for disaster, so they mostly wore tunics only – which made carrying a lightsaber fairly obvious and blatant, if one hung it on the belt like Jedi usually did. And Ben, well, he didn't like to broadcast his abilities.

Ben was holding his lightsaber now, he'd pushed away from the table just enough not to be hindered by it, his footing shifted to give him better manoeuvrability, body subtly ready for battle.

"Well, one of the old corporations has been making a comeback lately," SelTa said thoughtfully. "I think they –"

And that was when they heard the blaster fire and not from far away either.

It was coming from right outside their door – beating against the lock.

 

43.

 

There was a very marked difference between saber practice and actual battle, Obi-Wan decided later on. It was a difference he'd forgotten since coming to Bandomeer – since those very early days, when he'd still held hope, when Qui-Gon had been there, when Xanatos had very nearly killed them both.

It was easy to be at peace on Bandomeer because these days, nothing much happened. Or if it did, then it most certainly didn't happen to Obi-Wan, not in the isolation and peace of the Gorge of Nothing where the most exciting thing was the appearance of a recently hatched little bird, making its way to the feeder for the first time. So he'd forgotten, somehow, the feel and the meaning of it. The purpose of a lightsaber, and the power of lightsaber combat.

And he wasn't the only one. Of all the other Jedi Agriculturists in Bandomeer, only Embracca still carried her saber – a training saber like Obi-Wan's, if one of a far larger make. SelTa, Eni-on and Hahsona none of them bothered because, judging by the look and _feel_ of them, they had none of them needed to in years and years – none of them had seen a battle in a long time. And even Embracca only carried her training saber because as a Wookiee she didn't wear Jedi tunics or robes, and so it was the only thing that still marked her attachment to the Order.

They might be Jedi and once they may have gained battle training in the Temple, same as Obi-Wan. But they were Agriculturists, they were farmers – _peaceful_ farmers. And somehow, Obi-Wan was, too, because it took him a moment too long to even reach for his training saber and he was far more used to using it.

Not Ben, though. The moment the door burst open and the first blaster bolt flashed in, Ben was already around, lightsaber in hand – not even just _facing_ the danger but already dealing with it. It was fast and efficient and without hesitation, as Ben's lightsaber wove and tore through the air, easily deflecting the bolts aimed in, and at the gathered Jedi. They ricocheted against the walls, impacting the old wood there and making it smoke.

Before the attackers even realised that none of their bolts made it past the masterful weaving of Ben's lightsaber, the man himself was already pushing forward, lightsaber flashing in terrible, masterful strokes – thrusting and weaving faster than even Obi-Wan could keep up with.

Then it stopped – because in those easy, well-practiced strokes, Ben had sliced the barrels off the hand blasters and rifles aimed inwards. While the Jedi Agriculturists in the room just started to realise that they'd been under attack – as Obi-Wan realised that he'd just stood there, stunned, un-ignited training saber in hand, _doing nothing_ – Ben had his saber at the throat of the lead attacker.

And the attack was so dealt with.

 

44.

 

They were the hired goons of Deepmine Corp, which had, on and off, been mining Ionite on Bandomeer for the past hundred or so years. When the Offworld Mining Corporation debacle had finally brought an end to the careless, ceaseless mining of Bandomeer, Deepmine Corp. had its assets on another planet, mining out another resource and so they'd missed out on all the excitement.

By the time they'd returned, things had already settled on Bandomeer, the new laws had been taking effect. Lots of the more ruthless mining corporations had just left the planet, because the new laws prohibited them from using a lot of their preferred tools and means. Governor SonTag was very determined to stop the pollution and ceaseless destruction of Bandomeer.

Deepmine had decided that they didn't particularly care. So… they'd planned to change things with an easy and swift move. Mainly, by assassinating SonTag and all her supporters and installing a governor that would be more amiable to the old ways. The Jedi Agriculturists present on the planet presented a problem as well.

Bandomeer had no armies, it barely had a police force and SonTag had next to no government either. Even though they were farmers, the Jedi Agriculturists were still _Jedi_ and thus a threat to the Deepmine coup if not for any other reason, than because they could call _more_ Jedi to the planet. And they represented the changes SonTag had made – and with the gardens around Bandor, the changes were obvious and well-liked by the Meerians.

So, they had to go, them, SonTag and all those who presented the new regime of Bandomeer. So what better time to do it than during the monthly meeting of the Jedi Agriculturists, when they were all in the same place? Just sweep in, shoot the lot, and be done with it. They were only farmer Jedi, after all. It wasn't as if they would really put up a fight.

And they wouldn't have either.

Obi-Wan was shaking slightly in the wake of the attack. Ben was gone now – he'd swept out of the meeting room the moment the attackers had been secured. While Embracca stood over the bound attackers, her training saber ignited possibly for the first time in years, Obi-Wan leaned onto the table and just digested the knowledge that without Ben, all five of them might very well be dead right now.

"Obi-Wan?" Hahsona asked, his face stern. "You didn't teach that to Ben, did you?"

"No," Obi-Wan said, looking down at his lightsaber. "He's been teaching me, actually." And yet he hadn't felt the attack coming, he hadn't been expecting it – and even if he had been, he doubted he could've dealt with it like Ben had. Even with all the training Ben had been giving him… he didn't think he could've taken five attackers, all firing semi-automatic blasters. And he definitely couldn't have done that while shielding other people from being fired upon!

"Where did Ben get that saber?" SelTa asked, shocked. "It was a _real_ lightsaber – it could cut through metal!"

"I think he made it," Obi-Wan said and looked up. More blaster fire sounded in the distance and he could almost swear he could hear the ferocious hum of a lightsaber, answering it.

Obi-Wan blinked and abruptly realised he was in the wrong place.

Without another word, he ignited his training saber and he ran out of the room – to take his place at his Master's side.

 

45.

 

In the end though… Ben didn't really need any help. In the scale of Bandomeer and the Governor's house, the attack was fairly large – twenty or so people of varying species, armed with hand blasters and rifles, led by some minor manager from Deepmine. In the scale of _Ben_ though…

Ben, Obi-Wan was fairly certain, was used to fighting in _wars_ , in large scale battles – in the sort of engagements that required shields and blaster cannon batteries, if not warships and full on space engagements. Random hired tugs that were given cheap rifles and barely told which way to point the things, with next to no cohesion and very little organisation, just… weren't quite a match for the man.

By the time Obi-Wan reached Ben, the man had subdued the leader of the attack – a human man in impeccable clothing, wielding a hand blaster that gleamed with fine etching. The hand and the blaster both were now lying in SonTag's feet, and Ben was standing in front of the Governor, watchful of the attackers.

There wasn't a blaster in the room that hadn't been split in half – a couple of them were still hot red from the touch of Ben's lightsaber.

"You said that there were no actual Jedi here!" one of the goons was screaming at the now one handed man in fancy clothing. "You said that they were all just farmers! That none of them even had real lightsabers!"

"You will pay for this, Jedi," the one armed manager growled, squeezing the stump of his severed hand in his fist. Like all lightsaber cuts, it was already cauterised – but Obi-Wan could feel the pain, radiating from the man. "You have no idea what sort of power you are dealing with, what sort of forces we can bring to bear!"

Ben looked faintly amused by the threat. "I'm quite sure," he said, and turned his lightsaber off with a little flick.

And like that, it was over. The attack, such as it was, was subdued.

Governor SonTag, as soon as she gathered herself, ordered all the attackers contained and searched for further weapons. Ben and Obi-Wan dealt with the attackers in her office, while the meagre police force of Bandor rushed in to deal with the rest along with the Jedi Agriculturists. By the end of the day, they had twenty thugs in containment, and the fall out of an attack to deal with.

SonTag, Obi-Wan thought, was more than capable of dealing with Deepmine now that she knew what they were on about – and SelTa was more than happy to help her. The Meerian Jedi Agriculturist had even fetcher her own long abandoned training saber and hung it grimly at her waist – and though Obi-Wan doubted her abilities in its use, it seemed to reassure not only her and SonTag, but also those around them.

But there was another sort of fall out to deal with.

"I checked the records," Hahsona said grimly to them. "There has never been a Jedi by the name of Ben Kenobi."

"So there hasn't," Ben agreed, calmly but with a tiredness on his face that Obi-Wan could well remember, from the beginning of their co-existence.

Hahsona searched the man's face and then looked at Eni-on, who was also examining Ben's face.

"We will have to inform the High Council about this," Eni-on said, almost gently. "We would have, even without you – an assassination attempt of five AgriCorps members is no small thing. But your actions will have to be reported."

Ben looked at her and then bowed his head. "You will do as you must," he said.

Obi-Wan squeezed his hands into fists at Ben's side, and when Hahsona made a move to draw him away, Obi-Wan stepped back instead, standing slightly behind Ben, at his elbow. The Padawan's place. While Hahsona drew his hand back, looking troubled, Ben turned Obi-Wan with an unreadable expression.

Then the man shifted, straightening his shoulders, lifting his chin, and just… moving his whole body ever so slightly, but very markedly, into a whole different stature. The muted presence he usually barely emanated suddenly became almost palpable and suddenly… there was a Jedi Master in their midst.

And judging by the looks of it, the Agriculturists had no idea what to do with it.

 

46.

 

Obi-Wan and Ben headed home. The way back was quiet and almost tense, though none of the tension showed on Ben's face as he steered the landspeeder. Obi-Wan very nearly chewed a hole into his own cheek, trying to… not say anything.

"Are we in trouble?" he finally had to ask.

"Trouble?" Ben asked, glancing at him. "Why would we be in trouble?"

"Because… you're not a Jedi?"

The man smiled. "There are many things I'm not and not being those things does not make me a criminal," he said, turning his attention to the front again. "And you are not a criminal by association, Obi-Wan, so no need to fret. I am an anomaly and the Order might investigate, or it might not. In the end, though… neither of us has done anything wrong."

Obi-Wan nodded because… yeah, that was true, he supposed. Ben had fought the attackers back by using means usually reserved for the Jedi, and he'd done it effortlessly… but he hadn't killed anyone. The most he'd done was cause some burns and severed a couple of hands – always a risk, when using a lightsaber, and one the attackers well deserved. They were the instigators, not Ben. Ben had only protected everyone, and put an end to the attack.

Still, some part of Obi-Wan squirmed with the thought that… somehow Ben wasn't allowed to do that. Because he wasn't part of the Order, he wasn't a Jedi – he wasn't even a Jedi Agriculturist. Not in name, anyway.

Ben chuckled, obviously aware of his thoughts. "What do you think they're going to do – charge me for the use of a lightsaber without a licence?" he asked, sounding greatly amused. "It's not actually illegal for your average citizen to possess and use a lightsaber. It's near impossible, lightsabers aren't exactly thick on the ground, but it's not illegal."

"Yeah, but…" Obi-Wan sighed, shifting in his seat. "They could charge you for pretending to be a Jedi. That's a crime. I think."

"It is, on some worlds. But when have I pretended to be a Jedi?" Ben asked, glancing at him. "I claim no right to the title. On Bandomeer I'm just another citizen among many."

"They could say you do, by associating with the Jedi AgriCorps and using lightsaber – which you do _like a Jedi._ "

"That would take splitting hairs fairly far," the man said, shaking his head. "I know you were burned by the Order, Obi-Wan and I only have the deepest sympathy and understanding for your hurt. But the Jedi Order isn't actually _evil_. They do not go out looking for crimes that do not exist. They might be suspicious yes, and they might investigate – but they will not invent crimes where none exist. It is not the Jedi way."

No, it wasn't – and yet Obi-Wan couldn't help but worry… that there'd be some sort of fall out for this. That somehow, they'd have to pay for the revelation of Ben's secret. That somehow it would ruin everything – ruin the life they'd made.

The man glanced at him and then reached out a hand, running it over Obi-Wan's hair and then resting it against the back of his neck, gripping reassuringly. "They're not going to take you away from me," the man said, quiet and certain. "You're my apprentice, Obi-Wan. I'm keeping you."

Obi-Wan let out a breath and let the man tuck him in, and against his shoulder. Ben's arm was heavy and secure around his shoulders, and he smelled of dirt and plants and home. "You were amazing, Master," he said. "I'm sorry I couldn't help."

"It's fine, the attack was very sudden," Ben said, squeezing him gently as he leaned back, steering with one hand. "It'll be alright, my apprentice. There's nothing to worry about."

And Obi-Wan believed him.

 

47.

 

It took a day or two for things to settle. Or for Obi-Wan to settle. The attack had rattled him worse than he would've liked. It wasn't that he was afraid of another attack, or that he was truly worried – but that he kept living it over and over in his head. No one had been hurt badly and Ben had dealt with it admirably and yet…

Obi-Wan hadn't _done_ anything. He hadn't been able to help at all. And the more he thought about it, the worse he felt about it.

"I'm really becoming a farmer," he mused sadly. "I might know how to use a saber, but apparently just I can't."

"You're too hard on yourself," Ben said. "And being used to quiet peaceful living rather than to the rigors of fighting is nothing to be ashamed about. It is not your abilities or your mind that is lacking. It's habit."

"But you've been here for months," Obi-Wan said. "You didn't even _hesitate_."

Ben sighed. "A few months won't erase decades of practice, I'm afraid. And I haven't allowed myself to… relax fully," he said. "You know it as well as I do – it's what hinders me with our work there."

"You're still on your guard," Obi-Wan sighed. "And I've never been."

He'd lived first in the safety and security of the Temple and then in the peace and quiet of Bandomeer and what little action he'd ever seen hadn't been enough to teach him to really watch himself. He'd always been _safe_ so he didn't know how to not be, didn't know how to react when he wasn't.

Ben nodded, and clasped him by the shoulder. "And Obi-Wan? It's not a very pleasant mind-set to have," he said. "Your mind is open and free and full of light and you're never truly anxious. I can't do that – I can't be that. As much as I try to feel safe, I still check the shadows and mark my exits and it's _tiring_ to be always so watchful. One day I might learn not to be and I look forward to it, but in the meantime… I don't want that for you."

Obi-Wan sighed and nodded. He was quiet for a moment, staring at his boots. "Still," he said. "Next time I'd… I want to be able to _do_ something," he said, looking up. "If something happens again I want to help, Master, not just stand there like an idiot. And you might not always be there and…"

Ben looked at him steadily for a moment and nodded. "Alright," he said. "We'll work on your readiness and watchfulness. But not at the expense of the rest of your studies, nor our work, I think," he said and cracked a wry smile. "Your fellow Agriculturists will be twice on their guard concerning me on that score, I think. Better not give them any ammunition."

 

48.

 

For a while, it seemed like everything returned to normal. They worked, they practiced, they meditated, all more or less the same as before. The only change was that every now and then Ben would disrupt the peace by attacking out of nowhere. At first it was extremely jarring to have it happen, but bit by bit Obi-Wan learned to be more mindful of his surroundings, using the Living Force for a sort of omni-directional sixth sense, and so wasn't so surprised when Ben snuck up on him.

Still, it was obvious that for all of his progress with mastering Soresu and all the other katas Ben had taught him, Obi-Wan had lost that warrior readiness the Temple had so hard worked to instill in him. Simply enough, even as the work had hardened his muscles and he'd grown several inches, he'd grown soft.

"I'm not sure if should buy us a practice drone or two," Ben mused, scratching at his beard as he considered Obi-Wan after another impromptu duel in the vegetable field. "You need some blast deflection training anyway. And having a couple of drones following you around would teach you to be on your guard… but on the other hand it might just teach you paranoia."

"I'd rather be a bit paranoid than shot in the back," Obi-Wan said.

"Alright," Ben said. "Drones it is. Though not quite yet. Let us let things settle in Bandor for a while," he said and turned his saber off. "Have you been considering the question?"

"What question?"

"Yesterday's question, concerning the old Code versus the new Code of the Jedi Order," Ben said, moving to pick up the shovel Obi-Wan had dropped when Ben had ambushed him. "Why were the negatives added – why _there is no emotion, there is peace_ instead of the old _Emotion, yet peace_?"

Obi-Wan sighed, and attempted to shift his battle ready mind to philosophy instead. "Because it refined the Code, and made it more precise. _Emotion, yet peace_ is very vague, where as _There is no emotion, there is peace_ is clearly defined and you understand the meaning instantly. No room for varying interpretations."

"And why was that a necessary change?"

"Because the old Code could be construed to mean so many things – it could be analysed out of order until you got two very different meanings out of it. Some even bent it to mean what they wanted it to mean, rather than what was actually intended," Obi-Wan answered, picking up the seedling trays with the Force from where he'd dropped them.

"But isn't it a very restrictive form of the Code?" Ben asked. "Does it not deny emotion, deny ignorance, passion, and even death?"

Obi-Wan considered it. There is no emotion, there is no ignorance, there is no passion, there is no death. "I guess; but," he frowned. "I never saw it like that. I always thought that it meant that emotion _is_ peace, that ignorance is knowledge – or that in emotion there is peace, or it should be found in it. There is no emotion, there is peace to me always sounded like an order to find peace in emotion."

Ben considered that as he dug, moving as easily to farming as he switched over to fighting. "That's a bit of a leap. And you're interpreting the Code to suit yourself, aren't you."

"Yes, but… the literal understanding of the code is impossible. If _There is no emotion_ is taken literally then it's… well. It denies sentience – it denies _sapience_ ," Obi-Wan said. "There _is_ emotion. We're thinking feeling creatures – most anything that can move on its own power and isn't made in a factory is a _feeling_ creature. To deny their ability to feel is to deny… everything about them, really."

Ben smiled, satisfied. "Alright. If _There is no emotion_ is an inaccurate statement – why is it in the Code?"

 

49.

 

Ben bought the practice drones the next time he visited Bandor. The two spherical droids were both odd and familiar all at once – not precisely like the practice drones of the Temple, though their function was the same. Albeit, these ones were civilian models – designed to teach a person how to avoid blaster fire, not reflect it like the Temple drones did.

"Still, they should do well enough," Ben said as he went over their programming. "Now, take out your training saber. Let us test it."

Obi-Wan ignited his saber and stood ready, waiting until the droids began firing weak blasts at him. He deflected the first couple easily, one of them into the air and the other into the ground. The next ones were a little harder, coming close together, but he managed – though one of them ricocheted very close to Ben, who idly ducked his head out of the way.

"Sorry," Obi-Wan said, wincing. He wasn't as good at redirection of the reflected blasts as he used to be.

"It's fine. Try again," Ben said, patiently, folding his arms and watching.

Though sensing the oncoming blasts was easy enough – Obi-Wan's directional senses were better now than they'd ever been in the Temple – the blast reflection itself took some time before he got the hang of it again. The problem was not just that it had been so long since he tried his hand at it – but the hand itself. He'd grown several inches, since the last time he'd done this sort of practice. He was taller, his reach had increased, his hand was bigger – and his muscles had grown and dedicated themselves to a shovel, rather than to a saber.

Though he could hold his ground against Ben for quite some time now, it was different against another saber than it was against a blaster. He'd lost the muscle memory and the reflexes when it came to this sort of fighting.

"Give it time," Ben said. "Practice. You'll regain what you've lost. Better yet, you'll gain new things – and stop using Shii-Cho, Obi-Wan. I know that's what the Temple taught you and that's what you used to use against blasts. But you know Soresu now. And what is Soresu designed for?"

Obi-Wan winced. Soresu was specifically powerful against blaster weapons. "Sorry, Master," he said and shifted his stance.

"Better," Ben nodded, and re-activated the drones with a smooth wave of his hand. Obi-Wan took a breath and tried again.

After the initial practice, Ben set the drones to follow Obi-Wan around. While they weren't constantly trying to fire at him, they did so at random intervals, and more than once the weak blasts caught Obi-Wan and rarely was he very graceful about it. It was _hard_ to keep up any semblance of a guard up when he had to open himself to the Living Force to do his work.

"It's a balance you have to find," Ben said. "And in it, there is a decision you need to make. You can either be on your guard and remain watchful… or you can open yourself to the Living Force. Doing both at the same time is, I've found, borderline impossible."

"Borderline," Obi-Wan said, pointing at him. "Borderline – not completely impossible. You've figured it out."

"No, not even close," Ben chuckled. "I've felt the potential, occasionally. I've felt it in you. If either one of us can ever figure it out, it will be you."

 

50.

 

The birds hated the drones. Every time Obi-Wan got close to the bird feeder with the drones hovering around him, there'd be such a squawking that one would think he was about to steal their eggs. Maybe it was the noise they made or just the fact that they were flying so unnaturally from a bird's perspective, or maybe it was something else. But as a whole, the birds did not approve of the drones.

"I feel like I've offended them personally," Obi-Wan pouted, while one of the birds ruffled its feathers at him. It was sitting on Ben's _hand_ because they still liked Ben. Ben wasn't being followed by unnatural flying balls that shot blaster beams.

"Oh, give it time," Ben said, grinning as the offended bird ate the seeds sitting on his palm. "They'll get use to them. Maybe. Eventually."

"Very comforting," Obi-Wan sighed, and gave the hovering drones a dismal look. He really wanted to figure out the training, and he wasn't going to stop now that he'd started… but he rather wished it wasn't at the expense of the birds' affection. He'd just gotten them to come close enough to touch too, and now they universally hated him.

Ben smothered a snort as one of the birds flew close to Obi-Wan just to squawk threateningly at the drones. He opened his mouth to say something and then paused, tilting his head. Seeing it, Obi-Wan instantly sent his senses out, being by now very attuned to Ben's _attentive_ posture. And sure enough, it wasn't without a cause.

"A landspeeder," Obi-Wan said, using the Force to enhance his hearing. The rumble was distant yet, but it was coming closer – and since their compound was the only place around… there was really only one place it could be heading.

"Hm," Ben agreed and waved a hand at the drones. Both of them slowly floated down and dropped onto the grass, turning themselves off. "We're about to have some guests, it seems."

Obi-Wan frowned, nodding, and closed his eyes. Though they were distant yet, he could feel two people on the speeder – and more than that, he could feel something from them. They both had a presence in the Force – and they weren't any of the other Agriculturists present on Bandomeer.

"Jedi," Obi-Wan said uneasily, opening his eyes. "One of them is a Master, I think."

"And the other is a Padawan," Ben agreed, his face smoothed into amiable calm that didn't betray his emotions. He turned to Obi-Wan and smiled. "Well then. Shall we go and make some tea for our guests?"

"Tea?" Obi-Wan asked incredulously. "You want to make tea for them?"

"They are guests. We should at least make the attempt of being hospitable," Ben said, as the bird flew off his hand. He dropped the rest of the seeds into the feeder, and Obi-Wan could feel him clean his hands with the Force. "Come on," he said. "I wouldn't mind some tea myself."

Shaking his head Obi-Wan followed the man back to the main mining facility, marvelling at the man's calm. His heart was pounding heavily in his chest and he was tense with anticipation.

The fall out of Ben's actions was about to hit them.


	6. Chapter 6

 51.

Obi-Wan almost broke a cup and spilled the tea and very nearly splattered Ben with boiling water before the man took him by the elbow and pushed him away from the cafeteria kitchen.

"Sit down – relax," the man said, taking the tea container form Obi-Wan's hands. "There's nothing wrong."

"Yeah, but –"

"Sit. _Relax_."

Obi-Wan sat heavily on to the nearest stool and sighed, squeezing his hands into fists. He could feel the speeder and the Jedi approaching, coming closer and closer and, despite all the worrying and fretting he'd done so far, imagining this moment happening… he didn't know what to do.

He hadn't really expected ever to come in contact with that side of the Jedi Order again. He was only barely even part of it anymore, after all – the Jedi Service Corps were more their own organisations, and the Jedi Order was something else altogether. And the AgriCorps were further set aside still because of the way they functioned, and the time and effort their duties demanded. While all the rest of the Service Corps – the Medical Corps, the Educational Corps, and the Exploration Corps – functioned with certain clearly defined boundaries of time, necessity and means, the tasks of the Agricultural Corps weren't quite as easily structured.

Sometimes, no matter what you did, the plants just didn't grow.

There was no scheduling in the AgriCorps, there were no deadlines. They worked more under certain moral and practical guidelines, than the rule of superiors or orders, and so the command structure of the AgriCorps was vague at best. Go where you are needed most, grow where the people are hungriest… While the AgriCorps didn't quite have a mantra of their own, they had their unspoken guidelines they followed, and by following those guidelines they functioned less as an organisation, and more as just a random group of people who happened to have the same goals.

Sure they still followed orders… when they got them. The thing was, Jedi Agriculturists tended to get their orders maybe once or twice a year, if that often. And those orders tended to be very open for interpretation – because every world was different, and so was the work. In Bandomeer's case, the original orders had been vague, _restoration of the planet's agricultural viability_. The hows and how longs were completely up to those Agriculturists who'd taken up the task.

Some Agriculturists could go decades without receiving orders. That was the nature of their duties. They were long winded, lonely and usually they went on and on and on.

SelTa, who was in charge of the general restoration project, reported back to the Agricultural Council every now and then, probably. Obi-Wan never needed to – he just did the work and reported the results to SelTa. So his attachment even to the AgriCorps was very loose, and to the Jedi Order as whole? Nearly non-existent. And the Order's attachment to him was even less. After all… who cared about a failed Jedi Initiate turned farmer?

Taking a deep breath, Obi-Wan unclenched his hands and looked up at Ben, who was making the tea as if nothing was wrong. There were Jedi – a Jedi _Knight_ and a Padawan – coming to a place where, really, no Knight had any reason to come. No reason, except Ben.

And Ben, being Ben, wasn't worried at all.

Obi-Wan watched how the man took out the cheap tea pot he'd at some point bought from Bandor, and how he carefully measured in a few spoonfuls of tea leaves. The action was somehow absurdly mundane, and so was Ben. All masterly poise and elegance – with grass stains on the knees of his trousers and tears at the sleeves of his dirt stained tunic.

The man cast him a look that was almost challenging and Obi-Wan let out a soft snort and finally relaxed.

Outside, a speeder came to a standstill in front of the compound, its engines quietly winding down.

 

52.

 

Obi-Wan's fretting racked up by a multitude of ten and then suddenly went collapsing down into astonishment, as he followed Ben outside to meet their guests – and saw someone very familiar.

Siri Tachi hopped out of the speeder, her hair cut short into a Padawan's cut, a small braid already showing behind her right ear. She looked both strange and achingly familiar – she'd grown in the last year and a half, her face had changed, had lost some of the softness of early childhood. But it was still Siri. In her Jedi tunics, she looked amazing.

She looked like everything Obi-Wan would never be.

His hair had grown long, and the tunics he wore, while a similar style, were far simpler and far more worn than Siri's. Next to her, already showing the poise of a Jedi Knight, he felt rough and awkward and out of place.

Why was it that Jedi always made him feel out of place in what was the closest thing he had to a home?

"Obi-Wan!" Siri called, looking as astonished at the sight of him as he was of her. Then she ran for him and very nearly hugged him – before pulling back, composing herself, and instead grasping him by the hand. "Hello," she said, squeezing his hand – hers felt soft and smooth, her nails well taken care of. What little calluses she had were those of lightsaber use, and even those were very slight. So odd, in comparison to his work worn hands.

"Siri. Hi," Obi-Wan answered, utterly dumbfounded. "Um. What are you doing here?"

Then he saw the Jedi Master she was with – _her_ Master, judging by the looks of things. A Tolothian woman with traditional head gear, who spared him the slightest look and a nod before turning her attention to Ben.

Right, of course. Ben.

"We're send by the Jedi High Council to see how Obi-Wan is doing," the Tolothian said, nodding respectfully but somewhat coolly to Ben. "I understand our arrival is sudden, but there was no way to contact you beforehand. You don't seem to have communications devices around."

"There's quite a bit of ionite on the planet – it makes long distance communication on the surface of Bandomeer unreliable," Ben answered, watching the Jedi Master with an unreadable expression. Then he turned to look at Obi-Wan and Siri. "Friend of yours, Obi-Wan?"

"Yes, this is Siri Tachi – she was a couple years below me back at the Temple, but we did a lot of practice together," Obi-Wan said, turning from Ben to Siri who smiled a little awkwardly at him.

"And this is my Master, Adi Gallia," Siri said, motioning at the Jedi Master who bowed her head in recognition.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi, at your service," Obi-Wan bowed his head awkwardly at the Jedi Master and then glanced at Ben, who almost imperceptibly nodded. "And this is Ben Kenobi," he added, motioning at the man. He rather wanted to add that Ben was his Master but…

In face of a _real_ Jedi Master, one proven by her work and sanctioned by the High Council… he just couldn't.

Obi-Wan glanced at Ben and winced at the slight arch of the man's eyebrows. As always, the man didn't miss a beat. "Well then, now what we all know each other," Ben said slowly, running a hand over his beard. "We've made tea," he said, turning to the Tolothian Jedi. "Would you care to join us?"

 

53.

 

It was the tensest cup of tea Obi-Wan had ever had, made only worse by the fact that Siri was almost vibrating with all the questions she obviously wanted to ask. And Ben and Master Gallia were practically glaring at each other over the heads of their students, their expressions calm and amiable enough, but their eyes sharp, gauging.

Or at least Master Gallia's was so. Ben had a whole different look about his face – one Obi-Wan knew and yet didn't. It was one he'd only _felt_ , never truly seen. He couldn't _quite_ put a word to it, though. The emotion behind it was far too complex, it's depth too profound, for him to be able to grasp at it fully. But he thought that there was a hint of sorrow in it. The same sorrow that sometimes woke up Ben in the middle of the night, and had him releasing his regrets into the Force until the morning.

Which really only made the staring contest between the two Masters _worse_.

Obi-Wan tried not to squirm under the feel of it. He was seated at Ben's right, facing Siri who sat beside Master Gallia. Siri obviously wasn't numb to the tension in the air either, because the anticipation she only barely contained was shaded by what could only be called wincing.

The students exchanged an awkward look over their tea cups and the Padawan took a breath. "So," Siri finally broke the silence. "You look well."

Obi-Wan let out a laugh at that, almost relieved to have the silence broken. "I look like a farmer," he said. " _You_ look well," he said and motioned at her. It took effort to swallow the nostalgic bitterness at it. She did look well. And not just that.

She looked like she had been a Padawan learner almost as long as Obi-Wan had been a farmer. She was so much younger than him – she still wasn't even thirteen yet – and still… she had a Master. She was getting personal training – had been getting it for a while now. And it showed on her – she _glowed_ with it.

She was on the way to becoming a Jedi Knight.

Obi-Wan swallowed and smiled. "How is everyone?"

Siri hesitated and then gave him a look. "You know, you'd _know_ that if you kept in touch," she said. "No word, no messages, you haven't even written to _Bant_. Do you know how worried she's been about you?"

Obi-Wan was a little taken aback. Sure, he hadn't sent anyone any messages. Why would he? What did he have to say? Should he tell them about how the plants were coming along, how many he'd planted – how proud he was of the little meadow growing ever so slowly around the bird feeder?

Why the hell would they even _care_?

Ben glanced at him almost sharply, feeling the emotion welling up and with a smothered grimace Obi-Wan swallowed the sudden anger. He glanced away – at the seedling trays sitting next to him, and released the emotion into the Force. It had been a while since he had to do that.

"Well, no one's written me either, no one's kept in contact with me. So…" he said, and took his tea cup, using it as a shield against Siri's flat stare.

"You seem to have done well with this area," Master Gallia said into the following silence. "There is quite bit of new growth here."

"All of it's new – all of it's by Obi-Wan's hand," Ben said, sipping his tea.

"And yours," Obi-Wan said.

"And mine," Ben agreed with a slight shrug. "But in a lesser part."

Master Gallia glanced between them and then leaned forward. "So you can use the Force as well as a lightsaber?"

And there they got to the heart of the matter. Obi-Wan glanced at Ben who was just calmly examining his tea cup. The silence stretched, almost palpable with tension and anticipation.

"Siri," Gallia said then, her eyes not once lifting from Ben's face. "Perhaps you would like to have a look around the fields?"

"What? I mean, yes," Siri said, standing up. "Obi-Wan, could you show me around, please?"

Obi-Wan started slightly and then glanced at Ben who didn't look at him. The dismissal was obvious in Gallia's tone and suggestion – she wanted the _children_ out of the way so that she could ask the pointed questions that were so obviously on her tongue. She wanted to interrogate Ben in peace.

Obi-Wan didn't particularly feel like being dismissed from his own home though. "Maybe later," he said, shifting slightly into a more comfortable – more settled – position on his stool. "I want to finish my tea," he said.

"But –" Siri said, frowning, and Gallia glanced at Obi-Wan, her expression unreadable.

"Ask your questions, Master Gallia," Ben said, lifting his tea cup and smiling over it. "We're not going anywhere."

 

54.

 

So, Master Gallia asked her questions – though she was obviously not happy about doing it in front of Obi-Wan and Siri. And no wonder – it was clear what she was after and what the suspicions she had about Ben were. It was all in the questions she asked.

Where had Ben learned to use a lightsaber, who had taught him, when had he learned to use the Force, how, where, _why_. What was his relation to Obi-Wan, really, and why wasn't it on the public records like it should be – what was he doing on Bandomeer and why.

Those were the main questions she asked, though veiled into slightly more polite and comfortable words. She wasn't quite accusing when she asked them, and whatever suspicions she had, she didn't really show as she asked them. But the very air around the old cafeteria was laden with mistrust.

Ben didn't really answer any of the questions. He poured more tea and nodded at every question thoughtfully, digesting each one in turn until Master Gallia had asked them all and only once he had the whole litany did he really even say anything. "So those are your concerns," he said, idly whirling the tea in his cup. "Alright."

But he didn't answer.

Master Gallia gave him an unimpressed look and finally turned to Obi-Wan. "Do you know the answers to any of these questions, Obi-Wan?"

Obi-Wan shrugged. He knew _some_ of the answers, suspected others, but not all. The thing was that he didn't really _care_. He knew Ben well enough not to worry about his past or his intentions. He trusted the man. And never mind how the Jedi Master obviously seemed to think it was a mistake… Obi-Wan _knew_ Ben. And he knew him well enough not to pry, too.

Gallia shook her head at Obi-Wan and looked at Ben again. "Your refusal to answer is not helping your cause."

Ben nodded agreeably. "And what is my cause?"

"To make Obi-Wan your apprentice."

That statement was followed by another awkward silence, as the two Masters duelled silently with their gazes, and Obi-Wan and Siri looked between them worriedly. There was a hint of seriousness on Ben's gaze, now. A hint of steel.

"Obi-Wan is, regardless of his current station, still part of the Jedi Order and we look after our own." Adi Gallia said finally. "If it proves out to be that your presence here is a danger to him, then the Order will act accordingly."

"What do you mean?" Obi-Wan asked sharply.

"You will be removed from Bandomeer, stationed at another world," Gallia said. "One where you will be safe."

"Safe… from _Ben_?" Obi-Wan asked incredulously. "Ben saved my _life_ – he saved the lives of all the AgriCorps members here – he saved the _governor_!"

"Yes. But why? And how? And what are his true goals, really?" Master Gallia asked, meeting Obi-Wan's incredulous gaze calmly.

"I can't believe this – what do you think Ben is? Some sort of _Sith_?" Obi-Wan asked, outraged.

"Is he?"

 

55.

 

In the end the interrogation didn't really get anywhere. First because Ben deflected or just flat out ignored the questions aimed at him – and then because the man was far too amused by the whole thing to even keep a properly straight face. For some reason the man found the accusation of him being a _Sith_ hilarious.

"Not that anyone truly thinks that – but there are concerns whenever a Force user crops up outside the Order," Gallia said. "It takes structure, determination and very strict discipline to learn the ways of the Force. Outside an organisation such as the Jedi Order, which has spent thousands of years establishing its ways and developing its methods, it is nearly impossible to learn to call upon the Force without being tempted by the Dark Side."

"True enough," Ben agreed and stood up. "I will not answer your questions, Master Gallia, which I'm sure you're well aware of by now. This interrogation is pointless. How about a demonstration instead?"

"Demonstration," she repeated slowly, tensing.

"Of my abilities," the man said with a smile, even as Obi-Wan quickly followed him. "You can judge for yourself whether or not I have fallen to the Dark Side of the Force. Outside, if you please – I'd rather not damage the plants here."

Obi-Wan followed close at Ben's side. "You sure about this?" he asked nervously. "I mean… not that I doubt your abilities or anything but…"

"Everything is fine, Obi-Wan," Ben said, smiling. "Trust me."

Obi-Wan sighed, and nodded.

Ben led him, Master Gallia and Siri out to the front yard of the mining compound – where they usually did their saber practice. While Master Gallia watched Ben closely, studying his every move, Ben took out his lightsaber, turning it idly in hand. "Care to dance, Master Gallia?" the man said, and with something like horror Obi-Wan realised he was actually _having fun now_.

Gallia eyed Ben for a moment and then swiftly removed her outer robes, taking her own lightsaber from her waist and turning it on. The blade of her lightsaber was brilliant blue, and she held it up in an attack position that Obi-Wan could only recognize, because Ben had taught him all of the basic stances of all the forms. Lightsaber held aloft in a two handed grip in a high guard position. Form V, specifically a Shien stance.

"I'll follow your lead, then," Master Gallia said, watching Ben closely as the man shifted his footing, activating his own blue saber with a flick and shifting smoothly into the opening stance of Soresu.

And then… they danced.

Of all the other forms of saber combat, the Fifth Form was the most familiar to Obi-Wan – because Ben knew a _lot_ about it. It had come up on and off during their practices and Ben had even taught Obi-Wan a lot of its moves. The Fifth Form was developed from the Third – from Soresu – and they had a lot of similarities. There was a very marked difference in them, though. Shien, while having all the benefits of Soresu's defence, wasn't entirely defensive.

For all that she _said_ she'd follow Ben's lead, Gallia was the offensive to Ben's defensive, just by the merit of their different combat styles. But then again – the whole point of Soresu was to _control_ the fight, and the opponent, through superior defence. It was very interesting to see the two meet, especially since Gallia obviously knew Soresu very well, and Ben was _intimately_ familiar with Shien.

The resulting clash was _incredible_.

"Oh my _Force_ ," Siri murmured beside Obi-Wan, who was straining his eyes trying to keep up with the rapid, graceful exchange of blows. The lightsabers thrummed and clashed as Ben parried, blocked and wove past Gallia's attacks, as she thrust and swiped and blocked in return. There was almost a rhythm to it, it sounded like music – and it looked like art. "Obi-Wan, who is this guy?"

Obi-Wan smiled proudly.  "He's my Master."

 

56.

 

The fight lasted for a _long_ time – it only ended when Master Gallia brought Force use into the mix and attempted to push at Ben. Ben answered in return and though Gallia was obviously no pushover when it came to using Force during combat… she lacked Ben's sheer experience.

"You've fought Force users before," she said, after Ben had knocked her off her feet and ended the fight with his saber a few inches from her chest.

"Many times," Ben said, pulling his saber back and flicking it off. He then held a hand out for her – and she clasped his forearm without hesitation, letting him pull her up to her feet. "Though not so much lately. That was a very invigorating duel, Master Gallia, you have my thanks for it. And my respect," he added, bowing his head slightly.

She considered him and then smiled. "You as well. I've not faced a duellist like you in a while. Your grasp of Soresu is marvellous, Master Kenobi."

As Obi-Wan and Siri watched, the two Masters exchanged compliments and notes on each other's fighting styles, pointing out each other's strengths and weaknesses. Two teachers, teaching each other.

"What just happened?" Siri asked quietly.

"I think they came to an understanding," Obi-Wan said slowly, looking between them. Then he did a double take at Ben. There was a sheen of sweat on the man's brow and his eyes were almost incandescently blue, brilliant with obvious delight. The man really had enjoyed himself and he was very nearly _glowing_ with it now.

Obi-Wan snorted softly. Happy Ben was so incredibly far from anything _dark_ that to suspect him now would be almost ridiculous. Gallia seemed to sense it too – she even looked a little sheepish under the barrage of Ben's Force Presence.

It was, as always, completely infused with Light.

 

57.

 

Though Gallia still had questions and Ben still refused to answer them, the fight had broken the tension and Gallia seemed a little less inclined to think that Ben was out to corrupt Obi-Wan. So when Siri asked Obi-Wan to show him around the compound again, Obi-Wan acquiesced this time. While the Masters talked about _whatever_ they talked about, Obi-Wan took Siri out on a tour.

"Not that there's much to show, really," he said awkwardly. "It's just these buildings and lots plants."

"And _this thing_ ," Siri said, motioning at the Gorge. "We saw a lot of ravines and holes like this on our way here, but nothing this big. It's _enormous_. Is that a water filter down there? What are those barrels for?"

Somewhat awkwardly Obi-Wan explained the Gorge of Nothing and the ongoing work to purify the water. They'd made some head way on it – the plants now encircling the water line were proof enough of that. The water was still not safe to drink, of course, it wasn't even safe for animals. But bit by bit, they were filtering the toxins out.

"It gets bigger over time, though," Obi-Wan said. "The monsoons will probably double it every year until it gets too big to be called a pond. So it's an ongoing process – it'll take years."

"Uhhuh," Siri said, somewhere between confused and fascinated. "And the plants? You've grown everything here, yourself?"

"Well… Ben helped. But I guess it was mostly me," Obi-Wan said, a little proud – and then more than little embarrassed for it. What were his accomplishment to a Padawan learner, after all?

"So show me," Siri said, urging him own. "Show me what you do around here – I want to see. I've heard that the AgriCorps use the Force to grow plants, but I've never actually seen it happen."

So he did, first taking her to one of the storage houses where he first readied a tray and then got out the seeds. While Siri watched, he grew out the seeds into seedlings and planted them and then he grew out the seedlings into saplings. He thought she looked a little surprised, that her eyes maybe widened – but… he probably imagined it.

"I usually do lot more, though," Obi-Wan said. "About a hundred times more than this. Between me and Ben we can plant almost five hundred new saplings each day." And the number was growing too, thanks to the resurgence of the Living Force in the area.

"Five hundred," Siri said. "And you do it every day?"

"Yeah, pretty much," Obi-Wan nodded, reaching out with the Force for the nearby stacks of seedling trays and bringing a couple to him.

"Show off," Siri said.

"What?" Obi-Wan asked, the trays falling into a stack in front of him. She looked at them pointedly and he followed her gaze with confusion. "Oh, right," he said, and frowned. He wasn't being intentionally showy – it was just how he and Ben did it, since it saved time. On some days they even _kept_ the things hovering around them – because once the saplings were in, the trays couldn't be stacked and there wasn't enough floor space to put more than fifty trays down.

Obi-wan scratched at his neck, awkward, and somewhere in the back of his head he could remember Yoda, telling him that the Force wasn't to be played around with. It felt like it had been lifetimes ago – and the value of that lesson… didn't exist on Bandomeer.

Siri watched him as the mood took a sudden dive and then asked, "Obi-Wan? Are you… okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered, confused.

"Yeah, but… _are you okay_?" she asked again and touched his shoulder. "Here, on Bandomeer. Doing… this stuff. I know you wanted to be a Knight, and…" she trailed off, awkward.

Obi-Wan looked at her and then at the seedling trays sitting on the workstation. Usually it was Ben beside him, working along with him – they'd be weaving the Living Force between them and around them, as they talked through whatever lesson Ben had decided to dedicate that day to, be it politics or philosophy or whatever else. Ben, who quietly approved him _showing off_ , who encouraged it and tried to do it himself no matter how hard it was for him. Together, they made plants grow.

Obi-Wan had wanted to be a Knight, once.

Once. 

 

58.

 

There was one thing Bandomeer had that beat anything Coruscant could offer without any effort – and that was the night sky. Even though Coruscant was a Core World and so in that section of the galaxy where star systems tended to be very close to each other, Coruscant's light pollution was so enormous, that even the brightest of stars couldn't be seen during the night. On Coruscant, the only way to watch the stars would be to leave the planet's atmosphere entirely.

On Bandomeer, all you had to do was to look up and it was all there, brilliantly lit against a perfect, velvety darkness. Sure, Bandomeer's night sky was sparser than that of a Core word – the stars were farther apart on the Outer Rim. But then again… from Bandomeer you could see the whole galaxy.

It was like an enormous river of light, running across Bandomeer's sky, from one edge of the horizon to the other.

"You see this every night?" Siri asked quietly, as they stared up.

"When I'm wake enough to look. Most nights I'm not," Obi-Wan snorted. They were lying on the grass, the birdfeeder standing beside them. Somewhere nearby, Obi-Wan could feel Ben and Master Gallia – he had a suspicion that they were _drinking,_ though where'd they gotten something to actually drink, he wasn't sure. Usually Ben didn't indulge in stuff like that and surely a Jedi Master wouldn't be carrying alcohol with her. Surely.

It didn't matter.

"It's so quiet here," Siri murmured softly. "So peaceful. I mean, I've been on a lot of planets and some of them didn't have much in way of civilisation – I've been out in the middle of nowhere like this before. But I don't think I've ever had the time to appreciate it. There's always a mission."

Obi-Wan hummed in answer, and didn't say anything. He didn't really feel like it – and for the first time, it wasn't because he was swallowing his own bitterness.

They were quiet for a moment, just staring up at the stars. In the distance, Obi-Wan could feel a burst of amusement – Ben, laughing at something Master Gallia had said. He smiled at the feeling, closing his eyes.

"You know," Siri said, her voice quiet, nostalgic. "When I was younger I wanted to be like you. You were always so strong and sure, I was so sure you'd be an incredible Knight, and I wanted to be just like you. And now here we are, I'm the Padawan and you're not and I still… kind of want to be like you."

"Huh?" Obi-Wan asked, opening his eyes with surprise. " _Why_?"

She chuckled at his incredulity, stretching her hands up and then tucking them behind her neck, pillowing her head with her arms. "I'm a Padawan and I'm never sure about anything. Every mission is a new uncertainty, a new confusion. Everything is ambiguous and complicated and vague and never what you expect it to be. Makes me feel like I'm a leaf in a river, always being thrown around by rapids."

She turned to look at him. "And here you are, still strong, still sure. More so than you've ever been. While I became a Padawan… you became a _Jedi_."

"I'm pretty sure you're a Jedi too," Obi-Wan snorted.

"Jedi _Padawan learner_ ," she snorted and looked up to the stars again. "It's like a Jedi minus. You're a Jedi, full stop."

 

59.

 

In the three days that Master Gallia and Siri stayed with them, Obi-Wan had private talks not only with Siri, but also with Master Gallia. While she'd obviously made her judgement on Ben already, she still felt the need to check up on Obi-Wan too. Maybe to confirm her suspicions or whatever.

It wasn't too bad, in the end. She, like Siri, wanted to see what Obi-Wan did around the mining compound. Unlike Siri, though, she wanted the full experience – from dawn to dusk, she wanted to see the daily work of a Jedi Agriculturist. So while Siri was testing her saber skills against Ben – who seemed to be perfectly at ease teaching another's student – Obi-Wan… worked.

He woke up with the sun, did his morning meditations, skipped his morning practice with Ben, and then did a general check over the area, to see that everything was where it should be, that nothing had happened during the night. Mostly it was about just sensing things out in the Force. It made Master Gallia's eyebrows twitch with surprise, but she didn't say anything about it – merely followed Obi-Wan to his next task.

Which _did_ make her say something.

"You're using quite a bit of Force," she commented, not _quite_ judgemental, when Obi-Wan was taking out the trays – ten of them, his maximum now.

"I only have two hands," Obi-Wan said with a shrug, and went to work. Purifying soil, dividing it up into the seedling trays, selecting seeds, growing them out, planting the seedlings, growing them into saplings… It wasn't precisely fast or interesting work – it was mostly just going through the motions over and over and over again, for almost two hours straight.

It was the longest two hour period he had had since Ben had arrived – usually it didn't _feel_ as long, with the man there.

In the end he had about two hundred saplings, though, ready to be planted and while Master Gallia watched, Obi-Wan picked up his shovel and then floated the trays out, ready to head off to planting.

"You do this every day?" she asked thoughtfully, watching the trays hovering in the air.

"Every day – except during the monsoon season," Obi-Wan agreed. Unusually he did more though – some days he made as many as four hundred saplings. That day he didn't feel like putting in the extra effort, though – without Ben's company and with Master Gallia _staring_ constantly, it would've taken far too long for his tastes.

"And you do all this by hand?"

"It has to be done by hand," Obi-Wan said. "It is the only way to channel the Living Force."

"Hmm," she answered, following him out of the storage house and out into the open. In the front yard, Siri paused in mid kata to stare, but was snapped back into order by Ben's gentle rebuke. Shrugging his shoulders at her, Obi-Wan headed off to where he and Ben had meant to start the next orchard.

"And Ben does this as well?" Gallia asked thoughtfully.

"Yeah. He's not as good at it, though – he's used to using Force differently," Obi-Wan shrugged. "But yeah. He does."

For the next _several_ hours, Gallia watched Obi-Wan dig holes and plant saplings, examining the results curiously as Obi-Wan rooted the saplings into the ground with the Living Force. He couldn't quite tell what she thought about it all, but her initial disproval for his _over use of the Force_ seemed to have passed.

She was starting to realise that the AgriCorps did things differently, and though she didn't quite approve, she didn't judge either.

"So this is how Jedi Agriculturists do in a day what takes nature years," Gallia mused and shook her head. "Incredible."

 

60.

 

In the end, though, Master Gallia and her Padawan didn't stay all that long.

"Truth to the matter is, we're on the way to another planet – this was something of a side mission for us," Gallia admitted. "And it is time we attended to our original mission."

"It's a border dispute," Siri murmured to Obi-Wan, ignoring the disapproving look her Master aimed at her. "Two planets fighting over the settlement rights to a third – we're going to go there and sit in all their meetings and try and talk them out of getting into a civil war. It's going be so dull."

"Doesn't sound very dull to me," Obi-Wan murmured a little wistfully.

"Well, it's been a pleasure, Master Gallia," Ben said, smiling as he shook the Tolothian's hand. "If you're ever coming by this way again and have the time, I would greatly enjoy a rematch with you."

"Should the opportunity arise, I will most certainly take advantage of it," Gallia assured him, true warmth in her voice. "And the pleasure has been all ours."

As Master Gallia went to turn on the landspeeder they'd used to travel, Siri tugged Obi-Wan in, and to the hug she'd not given him at the start. "I've missed you," she said. "And I will miss you – and everyone back home misses you and you should _write_ at least, okay? Maybe even send a holo. Couldn't hurt, you know?"

"Only if you send one back," Obi-Wan said, squeezing her tight.

She took a deep breath, squeezing right back before loosening her hold. He released her, and she stepped back, looking at him seriously. She searched for something in his face for a moment before nodding, satisfied. "Bye bye, Obi-Wan," she said. "Take care and may the Force be with you."

"You too," Obi-Wan said. "The Force will be with you, Siri," he added. "Always."

She nodded and then, taking a deep breath, whirled around and headed to the landspeeder. Then, suddenly, with the barest wave from Siri, they were off, and the landspeeder was speeding away, soon nothing more than an echo of an engine's roar in the distance.

"Well," Ben said after a moment.

"Well," Obi-Wan echoed and turned to him. Ben had that nostalgic, sorrowful look in his eyes again, but it was muted now, almost shoved back down to where it came from. "You didn't get arrested," Obi-Wan commented.

"That was very nice, yes," Ben agreed with a nod.

"I think Master Gallia liked you," Obi-Wan added, smiling a bit.

Ben ran a hand over his beard. "She didn't seem to dislike me, anyway," he agreed thoughtfully, looking after the landspeeder. "That's something."

Obi-Wan snorted, shaking his head. He glanced in the direction the landspeeder had gone and then turned to look at the compound again. Nothing about it had really changed – it was exactly the same it had been, before Siri's arrival, and it would continue to be the same probably months after this. Nothing had changed.

And yet everything felt different all of sudden.

"Well then," Ben said, and clasped him by the shoulder. "I guess it's back to work for the two of us."

"Yeah," Obi-Wan said and smiled. "Back to work."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here I will have bit of a break. These sort of aimless meandering slice of life things are surprisingly hard to write, since there's not that concrete a plot going on it's hard to keep up a momentum. I'll probably continue this fic at some point, though, because there's so much that can be done with this sort of fic and I had great fun writing it so far. But i have no idea when. Might be days, might be weeks, might be years.
> 
> So long and thanks for reading and commenting :)

**Author's Note:**

> Word of caution - this isn't going to be particularly action filled story.


End file.
